The Daily Echo in Bournemouth won the first interview with the teacher at the centre of a sex offenders row, after convincing his employer that he would be given a fair hearing.

Teacher William Gibson agreed to tell his story to the Echo after negotiations between the paper and the teacher supply agency he worked for.

Shunning calls from the nationals, he met up with news editor Andy Martin at the paper's offices on Sunday afternoon, and his story made the front page of Monday's Echo.

Andy said: "I know the agency was bombarded with calls over the weekend and I don't think they liked the tone of some of the calls.

"They were happy with the way we handled things and were confident that the teacher would be given a fair hearing, so decided they would rather talk to the local paper that covers the area of the school concerned.

"He came into the office when it was fairly quiet - he didn't want to meet up in public for fear of being recognised because his picture was all over the Sunday papers."

During the interview the teacher told Andy of his shock at what had happened an insisted he was not a risk to children.

In 1980 he was convicted of indecent assault on a 15-year-old girl, but they later married and had three children.

Andy said: "The agreement was that we didn't take his picture from the front and he feared if an up-to-date picture of him was published he might be attacked.

"We could have snatched a picture of him as he came into the office, but we decided to play it fair."