Birmingham, England -- A performing arts teacher jailed for caning, spanking and whipping aspiring actresses while conducting bogus television auditions has been banned from teaching for 12 years.

Stephen Hunt, from Birmingham, was struck off the professional register after a General Teaching Council conduct committee heard how he had used the scripts of plays he had written as a "licence to grope and abuse" women.

The hearing in Birmingham was told Hunt, aged 46, of Weoley Park Road, Selly Oak, had placed an advert for recruits in the actors' newspaper The Stage.

The acting hopefuls, all in their early 20s, believed they were taking part in a perfectly legitimate auditioning process after he explained that the scripts contained scenes of sexual violence towards women.

The hearing also heard evidence that Hunt played the part of male characters, ordering his victims to dress in black tights, leotards, high heels and short skirts.

In March 2002, the former teacher received a 12-month jail sentence and was ordered to complete a three-year sex offender treatment programme after admitting six counts of indecent assault at Birmingham Crown Court.

He was dismissed from Baskerville School, a residential school for autistic children aged 11 to 19, in the city, in July

2002. Imposing the prohibition order, committee chairman Tony Cuthbert said Hunt's behaviour had brought the school and the profession into disrepute.