History teacher barred from classrooms for life after affair with pupil at Malton school

The National College of Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) panel also found that Timothy Richardson, 34, had fraudulently produced letters which he claimed were from a hospital trust to explain two separate absences from Malton School in 2013.

And the panel ruled that he had attempted to mislead the school about the reasons for his absences. The panel found that Mr Richardson had entered a relationship and engaged in sexual activity with a pupil in 2006 while she was in the sixth form. It found that these actions were sexually motivated.

The NCTL panel also found that Mr Richardson failed to declare the nature of the relationship with a pupil when questioned by the school during an investigation four years later.

Mr Richardson did not attend the hearing. However in a statement to the NCTL he had said the relationship with “pupil A” had started during a camping trip in July 2006 – in the summer after she had left the school.

In the decision notice the NCTL says that the 34-year-old former history teacher “neither admits the facts of these allegations nor that they amount to unacceptable professional conduct”.

However, the NCTL panel says he did accept the letters he produced to explain absences in 2013 “were not real letters”.

Malton School started an investigation into Mr Richardson in 2014 in connection with unexplained absences. He resigned before a disciplinary hearing which had been due in July.

Mr Richardson has a right of appeal to the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court against the NCTL ruling and the ban.