The guilty plea and prison sentence of a British pedophile in the United Kingdom have triggered discussion in China over expatriates' professional qualifications and oversight.

Neil Robinson - who had worked in Beijing as a schoolteacher before his arrest - was sentenced to 12 years in prison on Friday for sex offenses and possessing indecent images of children, the BBC reported.

Robinson, 47, worked for Beijing World Youth Academy, an international school, from 2008 to 2012. The sexual offenses with which he was charged took place before he fled the UK in 2002.