A teacher at the centre of the row over sex offenders in school defended himself today and said he was not a paedophile.

William Gibson, 59, was suspended from work at Portchester Boys' School in Bournemouth on Saturday after local authorities became aware of his conviction for indecently assaulting a 15-year-old girl in 1980.

Gibson had previously been removed from three schools in the North-East and refused work by a supply agency which checked his details with the Criminal Records Bureau.

He has also received a prison sentence after being convicted of fraud in a separate case.

His details were never entered on the confidential List 99 of teachers barred from working in schools maintained by the Department for Education.

He told the Bournemouth Echo newspaper: ''I am not a paedophile. I am not a risk to children.

''I want people to know that. I know what I did was wrong back in 1980 and I regret my actions but it's not as black and white as everyone thinks. I hope people will come to the conclusion that I have never abused anyone.''

He was fined £60 in 1980 for the indecency offence on the girl.

At the time he was a teacher in a Sunderland school and she was a pupil there, although he did not teach her.

The relationship was discovered when he sent a bunch of flowers to her home and the court case followed.

They married soon afterwards and later had three children, two boys and a girl, now aged 17, 14 and 9.

The marriage lasted 19 years, the local newspaper reports.

After the court case, Mr Gibson resigned from the school and took other jobs until he was jailed in 2000 for two years for fraud.

After completing his sentence, he returned to teaching and moved to Dorset where he taught intermittently at Portchester School as a supply teacher in maths, working full-time there this term with Years 7-11, through London-based agency Step Teachers, the newspaper reports.

Last January he received a letter from the Department for Education clearing him to work in the classroom again. Ruth Kelly had personally reviewed the case.

He said: ''Of course, this has all been hovering over me for years but I love teaching and I think I have something to offer.''

Mr Gibson added that he had written a letter of apology to the school and intended to go into hiding because of the publicity surrounding the issue and fears being recognised in the street.

Parents of children at the Bournemouth school spoke today of their concerns.

Heather Askham, from Bournemouth, dropped her 11-year-old son at the school this morning and said: ''I don't think the school are at fault. A lot of it is down to (Ruth) Kelly. They actually knew that he had this record and let him teach at this school.

''I was absolutely disgusted when I heard that it had got this far.

''He was my son's maths teacher. He used to come in and say he was miserable and Mr Gibson would threaten the whole class with detention.''

Tamaz Kiknadze, from Bournemouth, dropped his 12-year-old son at the school and said: ''I went crazy yesterday and I was really worried. They have no right to teach when they do something like that.''

Keith Mitchell, chair of the school's governors, said it was ''school as usual'' today.

He said: ''I have spoken to 10 parents or so and governors and once they have heard the facts of the case about the 15-year-old girl who he then married and they know there's no question of impropriety at school, they feel reassured.'' .