Lawyer and top author demand anonymity for accused teachers

The call for the so-called Bill’s Law has been named after a respected teacher, William Stuart, who was acquitted following a six-month ordeal which was sparked when a 15-year-old girl alleged he had assaulted her.

His solicitor, Nick Turner, has linked up with the best-selling author Graham Taylor – a family friend of the Stuarts in Scarborough and a former police officer and vicar – to call on the Government to change the law to help teachers avoid potentially damaging media exposure ahead of conviction.

North Yorkshire Police officers charged Mr Stuart despite the teenage pupil having 19 incidents of bad behaviour in the school log – while the assistant headmaster had an unblemished 23-year career record.

Mr Stuart, 47, and his wife, Sarah, 43, who is also a teacher, welcomed the move to prevent others enduring similar anguish.

He remains suspended from his post at Graham School in Scarborough and is being investigated by the General Teachers’ Council and the Independent Safeguarding Authority. The pupil who made the allegations is currently excluded from the school for an assault on another student.

After the case, Mr Stuart revealed how embarrassment forced him to stay in a caravan each morning to avoid answering questions about why he was not at school.

He said: “I took myself off every morning to stay on a local caravan park to give the impression I was going to work as I didn’t want to set tongues wagging.”

Mr Turner, of Russell and Co in Malvern in Worcestershire, sat in Scarborough Magistrates’ Court during the two-day trial that ended in the acquittal of his client on Thursday last week.

But the legal expert claimed the case should never have been brought to court, and maintained “politically correct” reasoning forced the law enforcement agencies to push ahead with legal proceedings.

Mr Turner added: “These people (teachers) are the last bastion of respect in the classroom and if we cave in to kiddie power it will be to the detriment of society.

“There would be no holding back on what devastation could be caused to the community. It’s almost as if we now have children making the decisions with the authority and power in the classroom swinging too far the other way.

“They are manipulating their position and their rights and trying to run rings round any adults in authority.

“We had a man with an unblemished career almost destroyed on the whim of a child and her parent with the help of the police. It was a typical 21st century case where it was politically correct to bring it.”

Mr Stuart, of Stepney Road, Scarborough, was charged after an incident on March 21. The girl involved, who herself cannot be named for legal reasons, claimed the science teacher shoved her to the ground and against some coat pegs after she ignored his requests to stop walking away from him.

There were cheers and celebrations in court when the not guilty verdict was read out. Both the National Union of Teachers and the Tory MP for Scarborough and Whitby, Robert Goodwill, have already called for changes in the law in the wake of the case.

Mr Taylor, whose best-selling novels include Shadowmancer and Wormwood, claimed Bill’s Law was necessary to protect teachers as their lives are often left “in tatters” even if they are cleared of the allegations they face.

[email protected]