A SUPPLY TEACHER KEPT TEACHING DESPITE CONVICTION FOR SEX ASSAULT IN FRANCE
A supply teacher who sexually assaulted a child continued teaching in classrooms in North Yorkshire for six months after he was convicted in France.Simon Schofield was convicted in November 2023 before the Court of Appeal in Caen, about three hours west of Paris, of sexually assaulting a girl under the age of 13.
The 59-year-old did not inform his supply agency Yorkshire Education Ltd of his conviction and they say it was not flagged in a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check in 2024.
Meanwhile he continued to teach at a "small number of schools" around the Thirsk area between December 2023 and May the next year.
He suddenly resigned that May, claiming he had to go to France for a family emergency, a teaching misconduct panel heard.
He did not respond to a Teaching Regulation Agency probe or attend the misconduct hearing against him earlier this month.
His conviction was recorded on the Police National Computer (PNC), the panel noted, as France passes information about UK nationals convicted there to UK authorities to be logged.
A spokesperson for the DBS told the Echo they were unable to comment on, or provide information about, individual cases.
A PNC spokesperson added: "We don’t manage the vetting of teachers." Yorkshire Education Ltd said they “cooperated closely with the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) in the TRA's successful investigation of Simon Schofield.” They added all agency workers are subject to “mandatory safeguarding and UK criminal record checks every three months” as part of their own “robust processes” which are "more than the standard annual check required", and that: "The safeguarding of children will always be our number one priority.
Alongside mandatory DBS checks, Yorkshire Education run their own regular criminal record checks, where they ask workers to declare any spent or unspent criminal convictions.
He completed this check in 2024 and didn't declare anything." Panel chair Duncan Tilley wrote: "The panel had limited information about the circumstances of the offence, but was satisfied that by its nature, it was an extremely serious offence.
It involved a sexual assault on a child under 13.
The panel had no evidence of any mitigating circumstances relevant to the offence." Schofield was banned from teaching for life.
He has 28 days to appeal the decision to the High Court.
