‘GROPING’ TEACHER FILMED GIRL PUPILS IN CHANGING ROOMS Topless pics found on his computer

A DRAMA teacher touched two pupils sexually and secretly filmed other girls as they were getting changed, a court heard.

Bearded Mark Torley caressed the back of one student and touched the chest of another, it’s claimed.

Police who seized his computer found video stills of students getting changed – including one girl who was topless and others in just their bras.

It is also alleged he put his hand high up on a second girl’s thigh and pressed his body against her.

English and drama teacher Torley, 48, also made inappropriate sexual comments to both girls, who were pupils at South Molton Community College in Devon, Plymouth Crown Court heard.

Torley denies five charges relating to two former pupils. He denied three counts of sexual activity with a child and two of sexual activity with a person under 18 while occupying a position of trust. Some of the charges date back to 2008.

He started teaching at the school in 2005 until he resigned in 2015.

Prosecutor Mary McCarthy told the jury that he had admitted making indecent pics of students at the school.

Miss McCarthy said Torley would get into a huddle with students and would put his hand on one girl’s back.

She said she felt him caressing her back in the area of her bra strap on “three to five occasions”.

The victim felt quite uncomfortable but other pupils in the room could not see what was happening.

She said: “There is no doubt in her mind that this was a deliberate act. He would make intentional eye contact with her.”

Miss McCarthy said he also spoke to the pupil about his sex life and she dropped classes he was teaching.

The court heard the girl later posted that Torley was a ‘paedo’ on an unofficial Facebook page inviting comments about the school. The prosecutor said that the student was given a reprimand by the school but not asked why she’d made the comments.

The second student claimed that she was sexually touched in the school and at Torley’s flat in the town when she went to pick up some coursework.

At the school he is alleged to have put his hand on top of her thigh under a table while she was studying.

On another occasion as he asked her to stay behind to put away some chairs, Miss McCarthy DENIAL: Torley refutes charges said: “He pushed her against the wall and pressed his whole body up against her.”

At his flat she said Torley pulled the girl on to his lap and later put his hand down her top.

On another occasion at his home Torley allegedly cuddled her and kissed and stroked her hair.

Miss McCarthy told the jury he sent her inappropriate texts, including one in which he said he would like to see her in a bikini.

Torley was arrested and interviewed in April 2016. The expert report on his computer images was only completed in February 2017.

The trial continues.