Lecturer banned from teaching

AMARRIED lecturer has been banned from teaching after showering a former student with gifts and money in the hope of having sex with her, a disciplinary panel has ruled.

Stuart Ford, 51, called the young woman “Little Miss Angelic” and “Babe” after giving her a job – then showered her with presents and gave her money for a holiday deposit.

But the “young and attractive” woman said that after she rejected his advances department head Mr Ford suspended her “without reason” from her job as an IT teacher.

An Education Workforce Council (EWC) disciplinary hearing was told Mr Ford gave the woman – named only as Person A – a job at Coleg Gwent in Pontypool despite her lack of teaching qualifications.

He took a bottle of Malibu to her house, and once filled her car with presents while she was teaching.

Mr Ford has now been banned from teaching for at least two years after he was given a Prohibition Order.

The misconduct panel found the allegations involving Person A to be proven and said his actions amounted to unacceptable professional conduct.

Committee chairman Michelle McBreeze said: “Mr Ford was in a position of authority and trust and he had a duty of care. His conduct was inappropriate and fell well short of the conduct expected of a registered person. His conduct was sexually motivated and amounted to a targeting of Person A. It had a profoundly detrimental effect on Person A.

“This was a serious incident of unprofessional conduct. Mr Ford showed no evidence of regret or remorse.”

Mr Ford will now be banned from the classroom and must wait at least two years before he is allowed to teach again.

Earlier in the hearing, Person A had told the panel: “I started to think that it wasn’t a professional relationship and he was only interested in me because I was young and attractive.

“I felt I was employed because he wanted a relationship with me and one that was physical in nature.

“When I was not going to give that to him he was trying to get rid of me.”