A Wirral teacher who filmed indecent images of young girls at his school has been spared jail.

A judge suspended an eight-month sentence on Paul Daw for two years and ordered him to carry out 180 hours' unpaid work.

Daw, 46, an English teacher at University Academy Birkenhead for more than 20 years, was caught after a 15-year-old girl realised he was filming her in TK Maxx just before Christmas last year.

Peter Hussey, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court Daw was arrested that same day and and his phone seized.

Other mobile phones and a camcorder found at his home and 41 video clips involving filming up skirts going back nine months were recovered.

One clip showed several girls in the school sports hall, some of whom were getting changed. 

"What the defendant is doing in there while they were getting changed is something of a mystery," said Mr Hussey.

Many of the girls were recognised by the school’s headmaster as having their pictures taken in the sports hall or on a parents evening.

“The defendant wasn’t confined to just doing it in school. He was out in public,” he added.

Daw, of Stanton Road, Bebington, pleaded guilty to five charges of outraging public decency and one of making an indecent image of a child.

The court heard they were specimen offences.

In an impact statement by the girl filmed in TK Maxx on Church Street, Liverpool, said: "I felt sick when he filmed me around the shop. It made my stomach turn and since then I have always been aware of people around me."

She added that she feels paranoid that she might be being filmed and is nervous of men in general.

Mr Hussey said Daw told police he had been struggling with depression and was unable to cope in his teaching career, feeling physically sick when he went to school.

He denied that his behaviour was sexual but admitted it was wrong.

He said he resorted to his hobby of photography and his behaviour became "obsessive and compulsive”.

Ater accidentally taking a picture of someone in a shop he “he continued these activities on a regular basis”.

Peter Killen, defending, said although Daw denied his motive was sexual he now had “insight into the fact that there is some sexual motive to his offending”.

Daw was placed under a three-month curfew between 6am and 6pm, ordered to attend a sex offenders programme and to sign the Sex Offenders Register for ten years.