History trainer at £45,000-a-year boarding faculty faces jail
A history teacher at a £45,000-a-year boarding school is facing a lengthy jail term after admitting sexually assaulting a pupil.
Nick Baldock, 46, lived on campus at the exclusive Lancing College in West Sussex between 2017 and 2022, during which time he committed a string of sexually-motivated offences.
The Cambridge and Yale graduate yesterday (FRI) pleaded guilty to groping a male student aged over 16 at the college in July 2022, downloading and sharing indecent images of children and sharing details of college students.
Prosecutors told a short hearing at Crawley Magistrates Court that a 177-page report had been compiled on the teacher’s offending.
Baldock was said to have shared indecent images of children using Telegram and WhatsApp between 2021 and 2022. The disclosure of pupil’s details related to school profile pictures which he had sent to others via WhatsApp, although no further details were provided by prosecutors.
Baldock (pictured) pleaded guilty to groping a male student aged over 16 at the college in July 2022, downloading and sharing indecent images of children and sharing details of college students. (The disgraced teacher pictured outside Crawley Magistrates’ Court)
Baldock is required to supply his details for the sex offender register within three days
Maria Goptareva, prosecuting, said: ‘The sexual assault is by touching of student.
‘The sexual assault would fall into the category of an abuse of trust.’
The teacher faces a jail term of more than five years when he is sentenced at Lewes Crown Court next month.
He spoke only to confirm his name, date of birth, address and guilty pleas.
District Judge Jack Triggs said Baldock would be required to supply his details for the sex offender register within three days.
‘You’ve pleaded guilty and it will be for Lewes Crown Court to sentence you,’ he told the defendant.
Baldock, who now lives in Lincolnshire, replied: ‘Thank you.’
He was granted conditional bail ahead of his sentencing hearing.
In his LinkedIn profile, Baldock says he studied at Yale University from 2003 to 2009 after getting a history degree from the University of Cambridge.
His profile describes how he ‘studied many and varied periods of history and quietly despaired of academia before producing the discursive, over-written but nonetheless interesting dissertation entitled ‘The Religious Imagination in British Popular Fiction and Society, 1900-1945′.’
He also claims to have studied at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy before returning to the UK where he also taught history at King Edward’s School in Birmingham for six months in 2016.
Baldock was also an actor with Madcap Theatre Productions in 2013.
A general view of the entrance to Lancet College in West Sussex where Baldock was a history teacher
Baldock lived on campus at the exclusive Lancing College in West Sussex between 2017 and 2022
Lancing College, where fees are £15,590 a term for full boarding, is made up of several imposing buildings which are a major landmark on the South Downs.
Notable former pupils include lyricist Sir Tim Rice, novelist Evelyn Waugh and Brighton and Hove Albion FC chairman Tony Bloom.
Disgraced paedophile bishop Peter Ball was also a pupil, but his offending against 18 teenagers and young men were not linked to the school.
Baldock pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault on a male over 16, two offences of publishing an obscene article using Telegram and WhatsApp, three charges of sharing pupil profile pictures through WhatsApp and three charges of downloading Category A, B and C indecent images of a child.
He was arrested in December, 2022 and is no longer employed at the college.
