Heads ‘denied fair trial’ over Trojan Horse
ALONG-RUNNING disciplinary hearing against head teachers at the centre of the Trojan Horse schools affair could be thrown out following a claim they have been denied a fair trial.
The lawyer for two senior teachers, who were allegedly involved in a plot to “Islamify” Birmingham schools, made an application to discontinue the hearing on Monday.
At the centre of the legal bid is a claim that lawyers bringing the case against five head teachers failed to hand over evidence which might have helped the defence.
The National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) started proceedings against the teachers in summer 2015. A three-member disciplinary panel had been due to con- sider its judgment against the teachers, after nearly two years of on-off hearings.
But the lawyer for former Park View Educational Trust (PVET) head teachers Monzoor Hussain and Hardeep Saini claimed there had been “significant procedural irregularities” during the hearing.
In the application for Mr Hussain and Mr Saini, their barrister Andrew Faux said “late disclosure” of evidence had led to a “failure to ensure that all relevant material was disclosed to the defence”.
He claimed the NCTL’s lawyers failed to obtain material, including witness statements from fellow teachers and staff, from “their ultimate client”, the Department for Education (DfE).
Mr Faux said the teachers’ barristers only became aware of new evidence when government lawyers contacted them about separate legal proceedings involving the former chairman of governors at Park View Academy, Tahir Alam.
Mr Alam was banned from the management of schools by the DfE in September 2015, but is appealing against the judgment.
Mr Faux said: “It is fundamentally too late in the day for a fair trial.”
Addressing the panel, he said: “It is time for you to acknowledge what has happened is wrong, they have not received a fair trial, and you ought to exercise your discretion to bring these proceedings to an end.”
Mr Faux also alleged that the NCTL had failed to list the case sensibly, in one case resulting in a 181-day gap between hearing dates from December 2015 until June 2016.
Lawyers for two other teachers, Lindsey Clark and Arshad Hussain, are expected to make similar applications this week.
The Trojan Horse allegations sparked several inspections and inquiries into Birmingham schools’ operation and governance, including Park View.
It led to the five former members of the PVET senior leadership team – including former deputy head Razwan Faraz – being brought before the NCTL disciplinary panel.
Mr Faraz and his counsel were not present on Monday.
Two teachers from Park View Academy, in Alum Rock, were banned from teaching for life by the DfE as a result of earlier separate hearings but the bans were overturned by the High Court.
Jahangir Akhbar, a former acting principal at Oldknow Academy in Small Heath, was banned from teaching for life following his hearing.