Head teacher struck from record for receiving naked pictures of girl, 16

The head of a primary school who received naked images of a girl, 16, has been struck from the teaching record.

Rhian Eleri Desouza, 44, was dismissed from school Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Gellionnen, in Swansea, after admitting making indecent images of a child.

She had been arrested after a complaint from the child’s mother and police then seized her electronic items, including a Samsung phone.

It was found to contain one Category A image and one Category C image of the girl, which the victim had sent herself via Snapchat.

The child was not a pupil at Desouza’s school.

Desouza was then ordered to complete 200 hours unpaid work and 25 days of rehabilitation after admitting the two charges in September 2018.

She was also made to sign the sex offenders register for five years and was issued with a sexual harm prevention order.

An Education Workforce Council (EWC) fitness to practise hearing, in Cardiff, heard Desouza had become head teacher of the school in 2016, and received the images of her victim in 2018.

She was dismissed from Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Gellionnen in November 2018 for gross misconduct.

The hearing heard she had offered to receive a ‘voluntary prohibition’ which would see her struck from the teaching register indefinitely.

She was not present at the hearing, but had had previously admitted the facts of her convictions to the EWC, and agreed they amounted to unacceptable professional conduct.

Panel chairman Steve Powell said she had breached the key principles of the code and had ‘departed from the personal and professional standards expected of her’.

He continued: ‘She was an experienced practitioner who should have been aware of what was appropriate but her actions fell far below the standards expected of her.

‘The committee concluded that the conduct found proved was incompatible with Ms Desouza continuing as a registered person.’

Desouza will be able to apply to become a registered person in three years and six months, but her case must first be assessed by a fitness to practise committee.

During her sentencing, the married teacher told how she had been ‘mortified’ to learn that the receiving of the images was illegal.

At the time, Judge Paul Thomas QC said: ‘This is a very unusual set of circumstances.

‘It’s unique in my experience, which is of dealing every week with such cases over many years with cases of indecent photos of children under 18.

‘There was a great deal of local outrage expressed and I can fully understand why this would be. This would send a shiver down the spine of any parent.’

He said the scenario in this case was different as the girl involved was aged 16, over the age of consent, and had sent the images consensually.