A former teacher who kissed a pupil at a private school has been banned from teaching.

Andrew Colville had already been convicted at Harrow Crown Court in 2016, after admitting sexual activity with the pupil while working at the Royal Masonic School for Girls in Rickmansworth in 2005.

At court, Colville, 49, was given a six month sentence, suspended for 18 months.

Following a hearing by the Teaching Regulation Agency, civil servant Alan Meyrick said Colville is now banned from teaching at any school, sixth-form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England.

Read more: Former Royal Masonic School for Girls teacher guilty of sexual activity with under 16

The hearing panel accepted the teacher had been acting under “emotional duress” when he kissed a female pupil at the school.

The report, published last month, noted that Colville, who taught at the school between 1999 and 2005, had shown “huge remorse and regret” and what happened was “out of character”.

Mr Meyrick said: “In my view, it is necessary to impose a prohibition order in order to maintain public confidence in the profession. The risk of harm to pupils in the present instance is not the sole issue here.

“I am particularly concerned in relation to the damage to the reputation of the profession by allowing a person who has been found guilty of sexual activity with a child, and who has received a suspended prison sentence of 6 months for that conviction, to be allowed to teach.”

Colville, who has 28 days to appeal, cannot reapply to teach for four years.

He is the second teacher at the school to be embroiled in a sex scandal – in 2014, games teacher Emily Fox had an affair with a pupil.

The 26-year-old was jailed for 15 months.