A teacher has won a legal fight to have his DNA wiped from police records after he was wrongly arrested for an alleged assault on a pupil.

Matthew Wren, a former history teacher at Washington School in Tyne and Wear, had been at the school for 15 years when he says he was assaulted by a pupil. But after he reported the incident to the police last March, the pupil made a counter-claim of assault against him.

The 37-year-old teacher was arrested, photographed and had his DNA and fingerprints taken by Northumbria Police.

It was only when Mr Wren’s appeal was due to be heard by the High Court last week that officers accepted it had been unlawful to arrest him since he had co-operated and voluntarily attended the station. He was awarded between Pounds 1,000 and Pounds 2,000 in compensation.

Mr Wren, who now works as an accommodation officer at Durham University, said he was so traumatised by the experience that he had to quit his teaching job.