Darryll Prew

Introduction

Darryll Prew is a former music teacher and cover supervisor whose career spanned St Edmund’s Catholic School and Queen Mary’s Grammar School in the West Midlands, and who was banned from teaching for life in August 2024 after being convicted of six counts of abuse of position of trust through sexual intercourse with a child. The pupil, referred to as Pupil A, was a student at his former school when the offending took place over a number of months. A Teaching Regulation Agency panel found the conviction of a relevant offence proved on his own admission, and decision maker David Oatley prohibited him from teaching indefinitely with no entitlement ever to apply for restoration.

Background Information

Prew worked as a music teacher at St Edmund’s Catholic School from September 1994 to October 2001, and later as a cover supervisor and piano teacher at Queen Mary’s Grammar School from 9 March 2020. In November 2021, Queen Mary’s was made aware of allegations concerning Prew in or around 2001 relating to his time at St Edmund’s. He resigned on 11 July 2022. On 13 October 2022 he was convicted of six counts of abuse of position of trust in that he had sexual intercourse with a child, upon his own confession, and was sentenced on 10 November 2022 to two years and four months’ imprisonment and required to sign the sex offender’s register for 10 years. He asked that his regulator case be dealt with without a hearing, providing a signed statement of agreed facts admitting the conviction; the panel met privately on 6 August 2024.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Adjudicated vs. alleged. Prew’s convictions on all six counts were entered on his own confession at court and are a matter of record, certified to the panel. He admitted the convictions and the facts underlying them in a signed statement of agreed facts; nothing was acquitted or contested.

In the agreed facts Prew admitted that Pupil A was a pupil at his former school and under the relevant age when the sexual intercourse occurred, that he visited the pupil at home, that intercourse took place during a school trip abroad, in a field, at a dirt track he drove the pupil to in his car, and in classrooms. The panel accepted the certificate of conviction as conclusive proof of both the convictions and the facts necessarily implied by them. It noted that the offending involved sexual activity during school hours and on school premises, that the sentencing judge described “very textbook grooming” taking place beforehand and “an advanced and developed sexual relationship” involving “a significant degree of planning”, and that in a police interview Prew referred to an earlier relationship with a different pupil and acknowledged he knew “it was wrong to be in a relationship with a student”.

Public Reaction and Consequences

No press coverage attaches to the case; the published decision is the public record. The court imposed an immediate prison sentence and a decade on the sex offender register, and the sentencing judge acknowledged references describing Prew’s positive benefit to his community since the offences. The panel found that the seriousness of the offending outweighed that mitigation. It recommended a prohibition order with no review period, noting the Advice indicates the public interest weighs in favour of none where cases include serious sexual misconduct or any sexual misconduct involving a child. Oatley concluded that a published decision “not backed up by evidence of insight and remorse” could not satisfy the public interest, and that allowing a review period was not sufficient to maintain confidence given the serious nature of the offences and the lack of insight.

Current Status

Prew 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 decision maker also removed his entitlement to apply for restoration, the ban has no review gate: he “shall not be entitled to apply for restoration of his eligibility to teach”. The determination is dated 6 August 2024, with the order dated 7 August 2024, effective from service. He retains a right of appeal to the King’s Bench Division of the High Court within 28 days of notice; the published record shows none was filed. His imprisonment, completed before the regulatory hearing, and his 10-year register requirement continue independently of the teaching ban.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Prew’s case sits in the tier the regulator treats as beyond second chances: multiple convictions for sexual intercourse with a pupil, admitted in full, trigger the no-review, no-restoration outcome whatever the passage of time since the offending. The two-decade gap between the conduct and the 2021 allegations did not soften the outcome; the referral was triggered when a later employer learned of the historic allegations, and his resignation followed within months. The ban is total, nationwide and effectively permanent. For schools the case underlines that historic-conduct allegations against a serving teacher follow them between employers and end careers on conviction, regardless of intervening years of unremarkable service.

Sources

• Dept for Education, “Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Mr Darryll Prew” — source