Teacher admits photos of pupils undressing

A primary school teacher is facing jail after he admitted using a covert camera pen to take photographs of pupils getting undressed for PE lessons. Richard Watkins, who resigned after his arrest, was also found to have more than 23,000 indecent images of children stored on his home computer. More than a dozen parents and staff from the Wiltshire school attended the magistrates hearing at Chippenham to hear the 28-year-old plead guilty to 13 offences, including voyeurism. William Hazelton, defending, said: "He feels total shame. He knows he has let himself down. He's let the school down and the children there. "He always thought he would be a school teacher for life. It was a job he was good at and enjoyed doing it." Alastair Nisbett, prosecuting, successfully argued for the case to be sent to crown court for sentencing. Nisbett said: "Here we are talking about images of eight-year-old children in a primary school, while the person taking these images is a teacher. You may feel that is a fairly extreme breach of trust. "He admitted he had taken these with a view to keeping them and viewing them later on for his own gratification. He would be lingering over particular children that he found attractive." Watkins, who was released on bail to an address in Dorset, will be sentenced at Swindon crown court on a date yet to be fixed.