Daniel Ata-Baah

Introduction

Daniel Ata-Baah is a former lead teacher in mathematics at City of London Academy Southwark in London who was banned from teaching for life in July 2026 after a Teaching Regulation Agency panel found proved that he had been convicted of sexually assaulting a girl under 13. The panel accepted the certificate of conviction from Croydon Crown Court as conclusive proof, as its rules allow, and the conviction was the only allegation before it. It recommended that he never teach again, with no review period, and the Secretary of State agreed — deciding that Ata-Baah shall not be entitled to apply for restoration of his eligibility to teach.

Background Information

Ata-Baah, born 27 January 1969, joined City of London Academy Southwark as lead teacher in mathematics on 1 January 2018. Two months later, on 1 March 2018, he informed a person identified in the published decision only as Individual A that an allegation had been made against him of sexual offences which could result in a conviction for a criminal offence. He was suspended with immediate effect, resigned from the school on 9 November 2018, and the matter was referred to the TRA on 1 March 2019. The conviction came almost six years after that disclosure: on 12 November 2024, at Croydon Crown Court. The published decision does not state whether the 2024 conviction arose from the allegation he had disclosed in 2018, and the victim is not connected to the school in anything the regulator has said.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Adjudicated vs. alleged. Ata-Baah was convicted by a criminal court, and his conviction is a matter of court record accepted by the TRA panel as conclusive proof; nothing in this section is an unadjudicated allegation. He provided no admissions at the TRA stage, where the case against him rested on the certificate of conviction and the documents in the bundle.

On or around 12 November 2024, Ata-Baah was convicted at Croydon Crown Court of Assault of a Girl Under 13 by Touching contrary to the Sexual Offences Act 2003. The panel found no exceptional circumstances to displace the certificate of conviction, which it accepted as conclusive proof of both the conviction and the facts necessarily implied by it. The documents before the panel described him sexually assaulting a child whom he had asked to sit on his lap, including by touching her breasts over her clothing for his own sexual gratification; a witness gave evidence that they thought they saw his erect penis under his clothing at the time.

The judge’s sentencing remarks of 13 February 2025 were put before the panel as further evidence of the conviction: “You are to be sentenced by me today, as you know, for one offence of sexual assault on a child [….] when she was under 13.” Ata-Baah received 18 months’ imprisonment suspended for 24 months, together with a 20-day rehabilitation activity requirement and an 80-hour unpaid work requirement, a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years, a restraining order for 5 years, and £500 in prosecution costs.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The panel found the conviction amounted to a relevant offence and breached the Teachers’ Standards, including the duties to treat pupils with dignity and observe proper boundaries and to safeguard pupils’ well-being. It recorded that “Mr Ata-Baah’s actions were clearly deliberate,” that there was no evidence he was acting under extreme duress, and that although the judge observed he was of previously good character, the panel “was not otherwise presented with any evidence pertaining to Mr Ata-Baah’s character or evidence which would demonstrate any level of insight or remorse.” It found the case engaged the categories of conduct that weigh against ever allowing a review period, including “any sexual misconduct involving a child.” The Secretary of State’s decision maker, David Oatley, gave the lack of insight and remorse considerable weight, judging that it “means that there is some risk of the repetition of this behaviour and this puts at risk the future wellbeing of pupils.” No mainstream press coverage carrying his name has been located; the public record is the regulator’s published decision.

Current Status

The panel’s determination is dated 24 July 2026, following a virtual hearing in public at which Ata-Baah was not present and was not represented. He is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England. Because the order carries no review period — and the Secretary of State has decided he shall not be entitled to apply for restoration of his eligibility to teach — there is no route back to the classroom. The order takes effect from the date it is served on him, and he retains a right of appeal to the High Court within 28 days of notice. The outcome was published on 13 August 2026.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Ata-Baah’s classroom career had effectively ended in March 2018 with his suspension; the 2026 prohibition makes that end permanent and forecloses any work in schools, sixth form colleges, relevant youth accommodation or children’s homes in England. The panel found no evidence of mitigating circumstances, nothing to indicate the offence was out of character, and “no reason not to fear that behaviour of exactly the nature which the conviction demonstrated was proven against him, would not be repeated by Mr Ata-Baah were he permitted to teach again.” Alongside the ban stand the criminal consequences: a suspended sentence of imprisonment, a sexual harm prevention order running for 10 years, a restraining order for 5 years, and a conviction for child sexual assault that will surface in any enhanced criminal record check. The published decision fixes the facts of the offence in searchable public form.

Sources

• Teaching Regulation Agency, “Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Mr Daniel Ata-Baah,” published 13 August 2026 — source