A FORMER Rugby Borough Councillor who posted images of children to a website used by paedophiles has been banned from teaching for life.
Steven Birkett, who was head of history at a school in Oxfordshire, was banned by the Teaching Regulation Agency for behaviour ‘wholly incompatible with being a teacher’.
Mr Birkett was a Labour councillor for the New Bilton ward from 2012 until his resignation in 2017.
At some point between 2007 and 2017, he took images of two children and posted them to a Russian website without consent.
Although the images were neither sexual nor indecent, and the site is legal, Mr Birkett knew it was used by people with a sexual interest in children.
He also set up a profile on a website using an email address containing the name of a pupil.
Mr Birkett was suspended from Chenderit School in Oxfordshire after Northamptonshire Police began investigating his actions in November 2016.
Though police took no further action, he was suspended by the school in March 2017 and resigned two months later before it had concluded.
Rugby Labour chair Alan Webb said the group were shocked and appalled when they found out.
He said: “It is deeply worrying that behaviour like this is often hidden from even people’s closest friends. It is quite incomprehensible why anyone would want to behave like this.
“While our immediate feelings are of revulsion, we also trust the judgement of the police authority who we assume are in possession of all the facts. “Meanwhile, our thoughts are with the children and families affected, both within our communities and beyond.”
A Rugby Labour spookesman added: “We are all aghast and repulsed by what has happened and we will be asking some serious questions within the party. We will not allow for one second this type of abusive behaviour.”
Rugby Labour announced Mr Birkett’s resignation in February 2017, stating he “felt he could not represent residents in New Bilton as fully as he would want to” after moving away to “be close to his family”.
