A teacher at a private school in Scotland was fired and struck from the teaching register on Monday after a disciplinary hearing found him guilty of making antisemitic and lewd comments during class.

Religious education teacher David McNally told his pupils at Kilwinning Academy in Ayshire last November: “Hitler was not all bad; he killed the Jews, the gays and the disabled.”

Mr McNally also said he “would rather have been a prison warden or a child abuser” than a teacher and made inappropriate comments about Jimmy Savile.

A disciplinary hearing of the General Teaching Council for Scotland was called on Monday after furious parents complained to the school. Mr McNally failed to attend the hearing, but admitted to making the comments, arguing it had been “a particularly bad day” for him.

As well as striking his name from the teaching register, the hearing’s panel ruled he could not re-apply for a teaching post for the next two years.

They also recommended his case be considered by Scottish ministers, to decide whether he should be banned from working with children.

They said: “The panel was of the view that the explanations by the respondent did not reduce their gravity and considered that under any circumstances they were entirely inappropriate.”

Mr McNally will have an opportunity able to appeal against the ruling.