Teacher spared ban over secret pictures of girls

A TEACHER who kept close-up photographs of female pupils’ busts and bottoms has escaped a teaching ban.

Sean Powell, 49, admitted having memory sticks containing the pictures, touching schoolgirls’ faces and hands and putting his arms around them even after senior staff told him to stop.

The married IT teacher admitted unacceptable professional conduct but a disciplinary panel ruled he should not be banned because there was no evidence his behaviour was sexually motivated.

Mr Powell was suspended as head of business and information communications technology at Harwich and Dovercourt High School in Essex after female pupils complained about his behaviour. He is no longer employed by the school, which teaches pupils aged 11 to 18, but the decision by the national College for Teaching and Leadership’s (NCTL) professional conduct panel means he can return to teaching.

Margaret Morrissey, of pressure group Parents outloud, said: ‘This is unacceptable. He should not be in front of a classroom.

‘ If this man is employed as a teacher again then every parent with a child at the school should be told what he has done.’

Mr Powell, pictured at his Harwich home, was warned to stop touching his female pupils after complaints in 2011. Schoolgirls said he had made inappropriate comments and had inappropriate physical contact with them, the panel was told. Then in 2013 memory sticks containing pictures of pupils and former students were found in a laptop bag in his department office in the school.

Some of the photos had been downloaded from Facebook and others included close-up shots of legs and pictures which were cropped to zoom in on girls’ faces, chests and bottoms.

other images on the memory sticks included topless and naked pictures of adult women. There is no suggestion they were pupils or former students.

Mr Powell admitted giving one schoolgirl a mobile phone and contacting her on it. He admitted it was inappropriate but said he had been trying to support her after she found out she was pregnant. He also admitted contacting her and another girl over Facebook, and calling a third pupil after asking for her mobile number.

Mr Powell told the panel he called the third girl because he was monitoring her school attendance but the panel ruled it was inappropriate.

He admitted touching girls’ faces, hands and arms and putting his arms around at least two female students. But he denied claims he had told a girl her legs looked nice in a Facebook photograph, or that he had told another girl she ‘had a lovely frame’. The girls were not called to give evidence to the conduct panel, which found the allegations were not proven.

The ages of the girls involved were not given in the written ruling, which found the teacher’s behaviour fell significantly short of the standards expected but was not bad enough for him to be banned.

Rob garrett, the school’s head, said: ‘The wellbeing of our pupils is of paramount importance to us and we have robust safeguarding procedures in place.’ Mr Powell refused to comment.