Prep school IT teacher sacked after girls viewed porn
A TEACHER at a £10,000-a-year girls’ prep school was sacked after he gave six and seven-year-olds free rein to search the internet only for them to look up pornography, an employment tribunal has heard.
The young pupils searched for “the Queen’s underwear” and “naked boys” on their school computers during a lesson from Werner Nel, a newly-qualified teacher.
When Mr Nel, who lives in Hermitage, Berks, realised what they were doing, he closed down the files and later allegedly tried to delete the search history before his bosses discovered what had been happening during his class.
The tribunal heard that senior staff found out about the searches after some girls told their parents they had seen indecent images.
Yesterday Brockhurst and Marlston House Preparatory School, near Newbury, Berks, was being sued for public interest disclosure, unfair dismissal and breach of contract by Mr Nel who was sacked from his job as IT teacher after an internal investigation. He claims the school made him a “scapegoat” and assumed he had changed the browser search history.
Rachel Harper, the school’s HR manager, said that on investigation she found a search for “naked boys”. She said: “We clicked on it immediately and ... what was displayed was multiple images of hardcore pornography involving men.” The tribunal continues.