Jeremy Townend, a Paedophile primary school teacher from Herefordshire, has been permanently barred from teaching following a conviction for previous child sexual crimes.
Jeremy Townend, 61, who taught at a school in Herefordshire from September 1996 to August 2002, has been barred from future employment in the profession.
The Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) convened a professional conduct meeting following Townend’s conviction on five counts of indecent assault against a minor under the age of sixteen.
The violations occurred between May and December 2001, as reported in the meeting.
On 16 June 2022, Jeremy Townend was sentenced at Cambridge Crown Court to a 54-month custodial sentence and was placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.
The recently published report said there was no evidence to suggest that Townend had abused his position of trust as a teacher or while working in a teaching environment.
Jeremy Townend had been employed at Orleton Church of England Primary School in north Herefordshire at the time of the offending, but there was no evidence that his offending involved any of his pupils.
However, it was found that he had abused the position of trust that he held through his relationship with the victim and her family in order to advance a sexual relationship.
The panel heard that he had committed a serious offence involving a child and noted that the behaviour involved in committing the offence would have been likely to have had an impact on the safety and security of pupils, as well as members of the public.
The panel concluded that Jeremy Townend had exploited the victim’s young age and the fact she was impressionable and had engineered opportunities for the two of them to be together to engage in sexual activity, with the offending taking place on multiple occasions across a prolonged period.
The panel concluded Jeremy Townend’s actions were “calculated and motivated”, and therefore it was “necessary to impose a prohibition order” in order to maintain public confidence in the profession.
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