College worker rapped for adult websites visits

A COLLEGE technician who used a classroom computer to view escort websites has been reprimanded by a misconduct panel.

Stephen Davies was said to have visited sites including “AdultZone” and “XEscorts” and viewed images of naked women while students were engaged in lessons elsewhere at Cardiff and Vale College in Rumney, Cardiff.

The Education Workforce Council hearing was told Mr Davies typed in “Cardiff escorts” on a Google search engine and accessed websites containing an international directory of escorts on the morning of May 14, 2019.

The IT tracking system used by the college, eSafe, flagged up inappropriate use of a classroom computer and took pictures of some of the websites it had visited.

Yesterday, a fitness to practise committee held remotely found Mr Davies’ “deliberate” actions amounted to unacceptable conduct, but there was no evidence any pupils had been affected by his inappropriate internet use.

Chairman of the committee Mark Brown said: “Mr Davies’ unacceptable conduct was an isolated lapse lasting for a period of just over 10 minutes in an otherwise unblemished career of over 14 years as an education professional.”

Mr Brown said there was a “low risk” of Mr Davies repeating his behaviour and that he had the “potential to make a positive contribution to the education profession in the future”.

He said despite the finding of unacceptable conduct, a reprimand was an “appropriate and proportionate sanction” for him.

“The reprimand marks the fact that his behaviour was unacceptable and must not happen again,” Mr Brown said.

The reprimand sanction does not affect Mr Davies’ registration as a further education learning support worker but will remain on his record for two years.

Earlier, presenting officer Cadi Dewi said Mr Davies’ claim that pupils may have stolen his computer password to play a practical joke on him was “simply not credible”.

Ms Dewi said Mr Davies was “simply trying to explain away his unacceptable behaviour by falsely suggesting that somebody else has used his login details”.

Ms Dewi said images of female nudity were “clearly inappropriate for the particular situation”.

Legal adviser Eve Piffaretti said Mr Davies, who chose not to attend the hearing or provide evidence, had told an earlier college disciplinary hearing he “could not explain why this has happened and that he was truly sorry it had come to this, and found it very embarrassing”.

Cardiff and Vale College has been contacted for comment.