Beckfoot School teacher emailed pupil 560 times in four months

Matthew Kelly, 48, has been banned from teaching for life after admitting several examples of unacceptable professional conduct and a number of other allegations were proved by the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA).

A virtual hearing took place over three days between November 27 and November 29, with a report published on Wednesday.

Kelly, who did not attend the hearing, began teaching at Beckfoot School, in Wagon Lane, Bingley, in September 2013 and was later promoted to Assistant Faculty Lead.

He admitted to emailing a pupil 560 times, including 139 exchanges at the weekends and during holidays, and 170 that took place late at night.

An investigation by the school found only 22 of all the emails were “purely academic in nature”, according to the report.

One email to the pupil said “seems I can’t even turn the radio on, without being reminded of you”, while in another email he shared a picture of a lottery ticket with her and said if it wins they would share it.

Kelly also sent an email that contained a definition of the pupil’s name.

Kelly then sent “inappropriate emails” over a three-hour period, beginning late at night and into the early hours of the morning.

It began with a “wink” emoji from Kelly and he said he had drunk "just a bit more than 5" pints, according to the report.

He also discussed his personal life and the issues he was having in his marital life in conversation with the pupil.

Kelly said in written representations to the TRA that he was asked to support the pupil.

According to Kelly, the emails were to show the pupil was “not alone” and that the school “did care”.

He would often have chats with the pupil and offered “advice as he saw fit”, according to the report.

Kelly claimed that many of these discussions, which took place in person, “shed light” on the email exchanges.

The former teacher submitted that “no real further guidance was given to him” other than to check in on the pupil regularly.

But the TRA panel noted that, on more than one occasion, Kelly’s wellbeing was discussed with him.

He had also told the school’s Designated Safeguarding Lead that the support was purely academic, according to the report.

Two students raised concerns about Kelly and an investigation by the school began.

Kelly was interviewed but just a day before he had made more than 30 Google searches over three hours for the pupil’s Facebook and Instagram account.

The matter was referred to the TRA and Kelly resigned later that month.

The panel concluded that the contact Kelly had engaged in "demonstrated elements of building an inappropriate relationship" with the student.

West Yorkshire Police interviewed Kelly and he had a further interview in relation to images found on his devices and search terms used.

The report said: “The police advised that there were no illegal images found and therefore no criminal charges were being pursued.”

The images were identified after a review of hard drives from devices belonging to Kelly and a forensic report by police said they could “indicate an interest in the sexual abuse of children, or be borderline on a decision regarding subjects being of legal age”.

Three of the images were of females “performing sex acts” where the subjects “appeared to be of pre-teen age or did not appear to have hit pubescent stage.”

Kelly expressed his “deepest regret” as to the position in which he put himself, and others around him, and said he “has learnt an extremely harsh lesson”.

He had placed many years into becoming a “decent” teacher and would be “devastated if he would be unable to teach again”, according to his submissions.

The Secretary of State banned Kelly from teaching indefinitely and he will not be entitled to apply for restoration of his eligibility to teach.

The ban includes teaching in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation, or children’s home in England.

The Beckfoot Trust has been contacted for comment.