David McCafferty

Introduction

David McCafferty is a former teacher at the autism centre of Hill Top School in Gateshead whose classroom career ended in a teaching ban after a criminal conviction for assaulting a pupil. A professional conduct panel of the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) found in February 2023 that he had been convicted of battery against a vulnerable child, and on 9 February 2023 decision maker Alan Meyrick, acting for the Secretary of State, prohibited him from teaching indefinitely with a five-year review period. The case was decided on his own admission of the conviction, and the panel described the matter as an assault by beating of a vulnerable pupil.

Background Information

McCafferty worked at Hill Top School, part of Gateshead’s special-school provision, until his dismissal on 29 November 2019. The school’s concerns began on 31 October 2018, when he was accused of assaulting a pupil referred to in the proceedings as Pupil A; he was suspended from his role on 6 November 2018. A criminal trial followed on 18 and 19 September 2019, at which he was convicted of assault by beating. He appealed, but the appeal heard on 26 November 2020 did not overturn the conviction. The TRA’s notice of proceedings, dated 25 November 2022, alleged a single relevant conviction: on or around 19 September 2019 he was convicted of battery, receiving a community order with unpaid work and a rehabilitation activity requirement, plus £500 in costs and an £85 victim surcharge.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted of assaulting a pupil. The panel dealt with one allegation: a conviction for a relevant offence. McCafferty admitted it in his response dated 15 December 2022 and in a statement of agreed facts signed on 18 January 2023, and the panel found the allegation proved in its entirety.

The criminal conviction was the whole case. The panel accepted the certificate of conviction as proof of the offence, noting that where a teacher has been convicted of a criminal offence the guidance directs panels to treat the conviction itself as conclusive of the facts necessarily implied by it. The offence was committed against a pupil at the school where he taught, and the Secretary of State’s decision records the panel’s finding that Mr McCafferty “had been convicted for an offence of assault by beating of a vulnerable pupil”. The panel judged that his actions raised “obvious and significant public and child protection concerns, as was clearly recognised by the court when imposing a sentence”. The proven conduct amounted to a conviction of a relevant offence, the threshold the TRA applies to the most serious category of case.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The hearing on 7 and 8 February 2023 went ahead without him: McCafferty was not present and was not represented, and the panel, applying the R v Jones guidance, concluded his absence was voluntary and that it was in the public interest to proceed. The panel noted he had referred his case to the Criminal Case Review Commission but that no date was set for determination, and it declined to adjourn pending that process. No mitigation evidence was submitted on his behalf, and no evidence was offered to attest to his history or ability as a teacher. The school dismissed him in November 2019, the courts convicted him that September, and the regulator’s published decision is the final layer of the consequence.

Current Status

McCafferty is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England. He may apply for the order to be set aside, but not before 16 February 2028, five years from the date of the order; an application is not an automatic right, and without a successful one the ban stands for life. Meyrick adopted the panel’s recommended five-year review period, citing the vulnerability of the pupil and the absence of insight or remorse as reasons a shorter period would not protect public confidence.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The conviction and the ban together ended a teaching career in specialist provision, and the decision maker gave less weight to his contribution to the profession precisely because no evidence of it was offered. The case illustrates how a single conviction for violence against a pupil forecloses the classroom regardless of an unresolved criminal appeal: the TRA noted the pending CCRC reference, proceeded anyway, and built its sanction on the criminal court’s finding. The five-year floor before any review reflects the panel’s view that violence against a vulnerable child, met with silence rather than insight, carries a real risk of repetition.

Sources

• Teaching Regulation Agency (GOV.UK), “Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Mr David McCafferty,” February 2023 — source