A police force that refused to remove details of an unproven harassment claim against a PE teacher from his CRB file breached his human rights, a High Court judge ruled yesterday.
The man suffered a ‘killer blow’ to his career after details of the allegation were handed to potential employers.
A police officer informed CRB staff he was a ‘lech’ who children needed protection from and made an ‘unsubstantiated claim’ he had possibly stolen school property.
'Disproportionate': A judge told Cumbria Police they had breached a PE teacher's human rights
The 44-year-old teacher, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is now expected to seek damages after Mr Justice Stuart-Smith said Cumbria Police were guilty of a ‘disproportionate and unjustifiable’ breach of his right to a private life.
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Last month, the High Court was told that in 2010 a pupil at his school complained the man ‘hugged me … and pressed my chest to him four or five times’ while they were both in a pub. She also claimed he whispered: ‘I want you to come round to mine – two hours – £200 every month.’
The teacher denied ‘having spoken to or even seen’ the teenager and officers concluded no further action should be taken. But when the man started applying for work elsewhere, investigating officer
PC Anita Owen was contacted by CRB staff, the High Court was told.
PC Owen was said to have told the CRB: ‘He comes across as a rather nice person but, if you look at other intel on the system about him, I would suggest that he should not be in a teaching post.’
Nightmare: The PE teacher's potential employers were told about the unsubstantiated claim by a former pupil
PC Owen went on to describe the teacher as ‘a lech and in a position of trust, which I believe he misuses’.
The judge added that PC Owen also suggested the teacher had ‘possibly been guilty of the theft of school property’ – a claim that ‘was entirely unsubstantiated and was in any event irrelevant’.
Yet assistant chief constable Michelle Skeer authorised Enhanced Criminal Record Certificate disclosure. The teacher sought a judicial review of Cumbria Police’s decision not to remove the allegation from his Certificate.
The judge concluded the force had breached Article 8 under the Human Rights Act.
No one at Cumbria Police was available for comment last night.