Primary school teacher dismissed from his teaching role for offering sexual services for money.

At the Teaching Regulation Agency disciplinary hearing, Thomas Heayel was ruled to be guilty of allowing himself to be displayed in one or more inappropriate images of himself online between February and July of 2020.

Messages were also found of the teacher offering the sale sexual services from himself.Concerns were initially raised by local authority members not long before the teacher was dismissed.The primary school teacher admitted the allegations against him and understood that his behaviour was unacceptable and unprofessional conduct.Speaking on the matter, the disciplinary panel said:

"Whilst the panel had regard to the fact that there was no evidence presented that any pupils had seen or accessed the images online, the panel did consider that as a teacher Mr Heayel was likely to be viewed as a role model by pupils."

"The panel noted that whilst the website where Mr Heayel posted the images was restricted, the images could also be accessed via a generic internet search and one image contained Mr Heayel's name."

"Consequently the images were in the public domain enabling any member of the public, or pupil, to have sight of them."

"The panel therefore concluded Mr Heayel's behaviour would undoubtedly damage the public's perception of the teaching profession and there were public interest factors to consider."

The panel did acknowledge Mr Heayel's remorse on the situation however still concluded that that he would officially be prohibited from teaching indefinitely. This means that he will be unable to teach at any school, sixth form college, children's home or relevant youth accommodation in England.

Thomas Heayel will be able to apply for this decision to be overturned but he must wait until 2024 to do so.Additionally, he would have to prove to a different Regulation Agency panel that he should become eligible to teach again.