Judge’s anger over teacher facing court just for touching boy’s arm
AN ANGRY judge has criticised the Crown Prosecution Service after a respected teacher was “dragged through the court” over a false allegation that she assaulted a pupil.
Jean McCormick, 67, appeared before magistrates this week after she was accused of grabbing a disruptive child by the arm.
The court heard that a pupil’s mother contacted police after her son returned home with a bruise. But District Judge Nicholas Sanders acquitted the PE teacher.
He described her accuser as “irrational and over-protective” and said the CPS case had fallen a “very long way short” of securing a conviction.
“It is deeply sad that a lady of Mrs McCormick’s experience should be dragged through the court on what really comes down to the flimsiest of evidence, fuelled by an irrational and over-protective mother,” he said.
Chester magistrates heard Mrs McCormick had taught at Overleigh St Mary’s primary school in Chester for 38 years and no other complaints had ever been made against her.
The judge said he had read a “stunning set of references” from colleagues across the North-west where she co-ordinates sports programmes.
He criticised the parent who was “bent on causing as much trouble as possible”. The allegation was made after another mother – whose son was best friends with the alleged victim – had been waiting to pick up her own child when she heard Mrs McCormick shouting the boy’s name.
He had run as the class was walking back to the changing rooms. The witness said: “She was frustrated and angry from the tone that she spoke to him. I turned and looked, and she had hold of him. I was just startled. It was so forceful. I was shocked.”
She told the boy’s mother, who contacted police and complained to governors and the education watchdog Ofsted. Ryan Rothwell, defending, said there had been previous issues between her and the school and there might have been a “vendetta at play”.
Mrs McCormick said the boy had been calling another pupil names during PE and she had sat the class down to reinforce the message that they should be kind to each other.
However, at the end of the lesson the boy began name-calling again and ran off when the pupils were told to walk.
Mrs McCormick said she shouted his name and held him lightly by the shoulders to reiterate the “no running” rule, in accordance with her training. Ronan Molloy, prosecuting, suggested: “It was towards the end of the school day, he’s been acting up and upsetting other children in the class. He’s run off and you’ve just lost it?”
Mrs McCormick replied: “That’s not correct. I wasn’t even cross with him – slightly frustrated, yes.”
Mrs McCormick, of Great Boughton, was kept employed by the school part-time during the case but will retire this year.