A RESPECTED Hampshire teacher has been charged with a string of sex attacks against young girls allegedly committed over 20 years ago.

Roger Scott, head of business and economics at Thornden Secondary School in Chandler's Ford, is accused of indecently assaulting four girls under 16.

The 57-year-old was charged on Friday following a long-running police inquiry by detectives from Southampton Central CID. He will appear before city magistrates on Wednesday.

All offences are alleged to have taken place during the mid to late 1970s, when Scott was involved in a Southampton-based Christian movement called The Lighthouse.

Police stressed the allegations were in no way connected to Thornden School, where Scott has been teaching for around 15 years.

Bachelor Scott, who lives with his elderly mother in Chandler's Ford, was initially arrested on July 1 but was bailed pending further police inquiries.

He was charged with four counts of indecent assault after returning to Southampton Central police station on bail on Friday.

Just hours after being released from police questioning in July, a distraught Mr Scott told the Daily Echo: "Of course I deny it.

"I have been working there 15 years and I have never had a blot on my record.

"This has been a nightmare day for me. I'm probably going to have to move house because people are going to come round."

At the time of the alleged assaults, Scott was teaching at the former Glen Eyre Secondary School in Bassett, which later merged with Hampton Park to form Cantell School.

Mr Scott is a long-serving and respected member of the teaching staff at Thornden School in Winchester Road.

In the early 1990s, he led Thornden's girls' badminton team to victory in the Browning Star national schools title.

And in May 1996, he helped pupils win through to the national final of a major schools competition involving the money markets.

In July Dr Robert Sykes, head teacher at the 1,300-pupil Thornden School, declined to comment about the allegations facing Mr Scott but confirmed a police investigation was under way.

A Hampshire County Council spokeswoman also refused to comment on the allegations.

The Daily Echo understands Scott has been suspended from teaching since being arrested on suspicion of indecency in July.