A 51-year-old former Waldringfield man who sexually assaulted three schoolgirls has been warned he is facing a lengthy jail term when he is sentenced in April.

Geoffrey Lewis, 51, formerly of School Lane, Waldringfield, had denied four offences of sexual assault of a child under 13 and one offence of sexual activity with a child but dramatically changed his pleas to guilty to the charges on Monday February 14, at the start of the second week of his trial.

The offences are alleged to have been committed over a four-year period between 2013 and 2017.

Lewis, now of Briton Way, Wymondham, Norfolk, also denied three offences of making indecent images of children, possessing an indecent image of a child and taking an indecent image of a child over a 15-year period between 2002 and 2017.

On Monday he changed his plea to guilty on the charge of taking an indecent image of a child and the jury was discharged from returning verdicts on the remaining four charges.

Judge Emma Peters adjourned sentence on Lewis until April 7 to allow the probation service to prepare a pre-sentence on him and to allow impact statements to be obtained from the victims.

Judge Peters remanded Lewis in custody and told him: “You have pleaded guilty to very serious charges in respect of three young girls.

“There is no question you will be going to prison and the only question is how long that sentence will be.”

She said she would have to consider if Lewis presented a danger to the public by the commission of further serious offences in the future.

During the trial, the court heard that Lewis had touched the girls on their breasts and inside their underwear and had taken a picture of one of them in a shower without her knowledge.

He told one of the girls, who was 14, that she was “beautiful” and had put his hand inside her underwear.

He had also touched her breasts while she was playing a computer game and on another occasion he’d touched her bottom and between her legs over her clothing while appearing to film what he was doing.

Lewis had also sexually assaulted an 11-year-old girl by trying to put his hand in her underwear.

He had later allegedly apologised and told her he would get into serious trouble if she told anyone.