A FORMER school teacher who molested four students in a primary school was jailed for 30 months on Wednesday.

The 30-year-old, now unemployed, cannot be named to protect the identities of the victims, aged 10 to 15.

He had earlier admitted to three charges - two of hugging and kissing a 10-year-old girl in a male staff toilet and one of touching the private part of another 10-year-old girl in a physical education room. Two other similar charges were taken into consideration.

The court heard that the first victim, now 11, met the accused in school on April 24 last year after she sought his advice to improve her English. She had earlier sent him a short message service that she was punished by her mother for not completing her homework.

When she turned up, he told her to leave her school bag in a room. He told her he started liking her since the year before. He pulled her into the male staff toilet where he hugged and kissed her twice. She reported the incident to her parents four days later and they complained to the principal.

The second victim, now 12, was in school for a co-curricular activity in 2007 when the accused offered to teach her how to play the drums. While she was drumming, he touched her private parts.

Married with no children, the accused was found by an Institute of Mental Health psychiatrist to have significant hebephilic tendencies, meaning he has a sexual preference for pubescent youths.

He admitted to befriending teenage girls through the Internet when he was an undergraduate, and engaged in 'petting'' with them for a fee. He would kiss, hug, fondle and caress them.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Elizabeth Lee had pressed for a stiff sentence.

The accused, whose sentence was backdated to March 2, could have been jailed for up to five years or fined or caned or received any combination of the punishments on each charge.