A WOMAN said she was left feeling “sickened and humiliated” after a teacher took photographs up her skirt while she was on school property.

Simon Tidbury, 31, was arrested at a primary school in Colchester after a call was received from the headteacher.

He had been caught trying to take a covert picture of a woman by positioning his phone under her skirt.

After his phone was seized, officers found two upskirt images.

At a previous hearing, Tidbury, of Mersea Road, Colchester, admitted two counts of recording an image under clothing to observe another without consent and one count of operating equipment beneath the clothing of another without consent.

In an impact statement, the victim said: “My emotions have gone from shock to sadness, to humiliation and anger."

She added: “I felt sick when I was told about what he had done to me and I don’t think I will ever be able to understand why he did this.”

Caroline Woodley, mitigating, said if Tidbury were to be sent to prison, the loss of income would negatively impact upon his family.

She said: “He had been working at this particular school for six years.

“He has managed to find alternative employment in customer service for a compliance company.”

Ms Woodley said Tidbury had explained to the author of a pre-sentence report he had been looking at pornography during times of stress and the offences had developed out of that behaviour.

She added: “The whole process has had a salutory effect on him. He’s been arrested, lost his job when he resigned and won’t be able to work as a teacher again.”

Tidbury was sentenced to a 30 month community order, which includes 100 hours of unpaid work.

Martin Stuchfield, chairman of the bench, said: “The punishment here is not the unpaid work, that’s the least of it.

“The punishment is the fact you are a man of previous good character and you’ve lost that good character.

"You have forgone the ability to pursue a career in teaching and it is obvious from the references we have seen you were a good teacher.”