AUBURN —A former substitute teacher at Leavitt Area High School in Turner pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a student and agreed to spend a year in jail.

Seth Prideaux, 22, of Lewiston is scheduled next week for sentencing in Androscoggin County Superior Court on one count of gross sexual assault. The felony is punishable by up to five years in prison.

He has agreed to a four-year sentence with all but one year suspended, a prosecutor said. He also would spend four years on probation after his release from jail.

Prideaux would be required to register with the state for 10 years as a sex offender. He also would receive treatment as a sex offender, be evaluated for substance abuse and follow recommendations of the examiners. He would be barred from possession or use of alcohol or illegal drugs. He also must avoid contact with females under the age of 16 or 18, depending on which age the prosecutor and defense attorney agree.

Prideaux was indicted by a grand jury on three counts of gross sexual assault and one count of furnishing liquor to a minor stemming from an incident in January when police responded to his home to find the parents of the 15-year-old student yelling in Prideaux’s driveway. Her father told police his daughter had admitted to having sex with Prideaux. He reportedly told police he had sex with the girl three times during the two previous days.

He taught French as a long-term substitute at SAD 52, which includes Greene, Leeds and Turner. School officials said his name had since been removed from the school’s substitute teacher list.

He has been free on $1,500 cash bail. A prosecutor had asked last month that his bail be revoked after Prideaux was found passed out in a parked car in Bar Harbor. One of his conditions of bail was no possession or use of alcohol.

cwilliams@sunjournal.com

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