A former prep school teacher has admitted sexually abusing a boy under the age of 16 over a three-year period. 

Stuart McCulloch, 56, of Walthamstow, was the focus of a missing person appeal 48 hours after being charged with historic sex offences on February 15.

The former teacher at the independent Snaresbrook Preparatory School, in Woodford Road, yesterday pleaded guilty to a series of offences at Snaresbrook Crown Court.

McCulloch has admitted to four counts of indecent assault, six counts of indecency with a child, one charge of sexual assault on a child aged under 13 and two counts of possession of indecent images of a child. 

All but one of the offences took place between against a boy between 2000 and 2003, with the other committed against a seven-year-old girl in 2010.

The paedophile fled to Eastbourne in East Sussex, but was arrested on March 14.

He was remanded in custody and is due to be sentenced at Snarebrook Crown Court on June 9.