AUBURN – A former substitute schoolteacher at Leavitt Area High School in Turner was indicted Wednesday on charges that he had sex with a 15-year-old student.

Seth Philip Prideaux, 22, of 165 Stetson Road in Lewiston, is accused of three felony counts of gross sexual assault, punishable by up to five years in prison. In Maine, a charge of gross sexual assault is equivalent to a rape charge.

Prideaux was also indicted on a charge of furnishing liquor to a minor.

The indictments were handed up by an Androscoggin County grand jury.

Prideaux was released on $1,500 cash bail shortly after he was arrested in late January. He remains free pending a court hearing.

The charges stem from Prideaux’s alleged sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old student at the high school, police wrote in a sworn affidavit filed in Androscoggin County Superior Court.

He taught French as a long-term substitute teacher at SAD 52, which includes Greene, Leeds and Turner. In an e-mail sent out last month, Superintendent Darlene Burdin said Prideaux’s name has been removed from the school’s substitute teacher list. A long-term substitute teacher is defined by the school as one who serves more than 10 days in the same assignment, she said.

After the allegations were reported, Lewiston police responded to Prideaux’s home where the girl’s parents were yelling in his driveway. The father explained to police that his daughter had just admitted to having sex with Prideaux.

Prideaux told police that he had sex with the girl three times the previous Friday and Saturday, according to court records. He also admitted to giving her wine, according to the affidavit.

He said they had known each other for years. They hadn’t had sex before, he told police.

Prideaux is not certified as a teacher in Maine, but substitute teachers do not need to be certified unless they work more than 60 days on the same assignment, according to the Maine Department of Education.

He was fingerprinted on June 11, 2005, and cleared for the classroom.

After graduating from Lewiston High School, he attended the University of Maine for two years, majoring in philosophy, that school said.

He has no criminal convictions, according to a search of state records.