A world-renowned double bassist has admitted sexual assaults on three of his young, female students.

Duncan McTier, 59, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to two counts of indecent assault and one count of attempted indecent assault against young women from the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) in Manchester and Purcell school in Hertfordshire in the 1980s and 1990s.

Liverpool crown court heard he admitted groping a 21-year-old woman in 1994 and a 23-year-old woman in 1988, as well as attempting to grope a 17-year-old girl in 1985. All of the attacks took place in his home.

His 1994 victim, who cannot be named, welcomed the guilty pleas, which will spare her the ordeal of giving evidence. She said: “Duncan McTier’s conviction will send out a very strong message that it is not acceptable for teachers to abuse their positions of trust in this way, and that even two decades down the line, those who do so will be punished. The relationship between a musician and her tutor is a very intimate one, which can be wonderful, but it is also open to abuse.

“I came forward purely because I want it to be made clear that you shouldn’t abuse this relationship.”

The complainant said she had received emails from other women claiming they too had been assaulted by McTier and gave up the double bass as a result. “This conviction vindicates a lot of women, not just from the Royal Northern College of Music,” she said, adding: “Hopefully future generations of musicians will be safer now.”

McTier was suspended from the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London after being charged in May, but continued to teach overseas, including at the Zurich University of the Arts (Zürcher Hochschule der Künste) and Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid. He resigned from the RAM on Tuesday with immediate effect, the Academy said in a statement.

On his personal website, McTier says he has been “recognised as one of the world’s foremost double bass soloists and teachers” and “inspired a host of superlatives from critics”.

McTier is one of four former music teachers from the RNCM and Chetham’s school of music charged with sexually assaulting pupils following the conviction last year of Michael Brewer.

Brewer, a former director of music at Chetham’s, was jailed for six years after being convicted of five counts of indecently assaulting his former pupil Frances Andrade.

His former wife, Hilary Kay Brewer, was found guilty of one charge of sexual assault. Andrade killed herself shortly after giving evidence against the pair.

Following the Brewers’ convictions, a number of women came forward to claim they were also sexually abused while they were pupils at Chetham’s, prompting Greater Manchester police to launch a wide-ranging inquiry called Operation Kiso.

In September the conductor Nicolas Smith was sentenced to eight months in prison after admitting sexually assaulting a 15-year-old Chetham’s pupil in the 1970s.