Ms Julie Morris

Introduction

Julie Morris is a former teacher and safeguarding lead at St George’s Central Church of England Primary School and Nursery in Tyldesley, Manchester, who is now banned from teaching for life. Between August 2018 and September 2021 she and her partner engaged in the sexual abuse of a child, and in December 2021 she was convicted of 18 offences including rape of a girl under 13 after pleading guilty, receiving a sentence of 13 years and 4 months’ imprisonment plus an extended four years on licence. A Teaching Regulation Agency panel found the convictions proved as relevant offences on her admitted facts, and on 27 February 2024 David Oatley, deciding on behalf of the Secretary of State for Education, prohibited her from teaching indefinitely with no review period and no entitlement to apply for restoration.

Background Information

Morris worked at St George’s Central Church of England Primary School, Darlington Street, Tyldesley from September 2012 and was also the school’s safeguarding lead — the designated point of contact for welfare and safety concerns. She was an experienced teacher, having worked in the field since 2005. The school suspended her as soon as the matters giving rise to the case were brought to its attention on 7 September 2021, and dismissed her on 10 September 2021.

None of the offences she was charged with related to her employment at the school, and the child abuser — referred to in the decision as Child A — was not a pupil there. In one case, however, Morris took photographs of pupils at the school and shared them with her partner, although those photographs were not indecent. The TRA agreed to her request that the allegations be considered without a hearing, and both sides signed a statement of agreed facts, which she signed on 16 November 2023.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Admitted misconduct. Ms Morris admitted the allegations in a signed statement of agreed facts considered by a Teaching Regulation Agency panel. The panel found all eighteen counts proved as convictions of relevant offences, amounting to unacceptable professional conduct. The convictions are court-record facts: on 22 December 2021 she was sentenced, having pleaded guilty, at a Crown Court sitting for the offences listed in the certificate of conviction.

The 18 counts included eight offences of causing or inciting a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity with no penetration, two counts of raping a girl under 13, two counts of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child under 13, three counts of taking indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children, one count of possessing an indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph of a child, and one count of engaging in sexual communication with a child, with offence dates running from August 2018 to September 2021 under the Sexual Offences Act 2003, the Protection of Children Act 1978 and the Criminal Justice Act 1988. The panel accepted the certificate of conviction as conclusive proof and, in light of her admissions, found the allegations proved.

The agreed facts describe how, between August 2018 and September 2021, Morris and her partner engaged in the sexual abuse of Child A by sexually assaulting and raping them, with Morris both facilitating and playing an active role in the abuse. The pair exchanged WhatsApp messages discussing the abuse and including videos of it, and police recovered a vast quantity of chat logs spanning a significant period. The sentencing judge remarked: “As a Crown Court judge, I see many cases involving the dreadful abuse of children, but every now and again we see cases, the circumstances of which are almost beyond belief. This is one of those cases. Sadly, it demonstrates that human depravity really knows no depths.”

Public Reaction and Consequences

The panel found the offences were at the most serious end of the sexual offending spectrum in terms of gravity and had the potential to cause lasting harm to Child A, and that her behaviour led to a significant term of imprisonment demonstrating the public and child protection issues engaged. It stressed that her role as safeguarding lead made the offending all the more shocking: while the designated point of contact for welfare and safety concerns at the school, she was herself engaged in abusing a child. The mitigating factors — an otherwise unblemished record, positive if historic employment references, and full admissions to the TRA expressing regret — were outweighed by aggravating features including that the abuse was deliberate and sustained and involved actual harm to a child. The judge’s remarks, published in the decision, attracted attention as an unusually stark judicial description of child sexual abuse.

Current Status

The panel announced its determination on 19 February 2024, having considered the case at a private virtual meeting on that date without a hearing, a presenting officer or Morris herself. On 27 February 2024 David Oatley, deciding on behalf of the Secretary of State for Education, made a prohibition order taking effect from the date it was served. Morris is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England; the decision maker found there was a real risk of her repeating the offending and decided she is not entitled to apply for restoration of her eligibility to teach. She has a right of appeal to the King’s Bench Division of the High Court within 28 days of notice of the order.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Morris’s teaching career, begun in 2005 and spent at a single Wigan-area primary school from 2012, ended in her dismissal within days of the abuse coming to light in September 2021, and the prohibition order now forecloses any return permanently. Her criminal sentence of 13 years and 4 months with an extended four years on licence runs alongside a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and registration on the Sex Offenders Register. The published decision notes no doubt was cast on her abilities as an educator, but holds that her actions were fundamentally incompatible with being a teacher; because sexual offences involving a child militate against any review period, and restoration was refused outright, there is no route back to the profession.

Sources

• Teaching Regulation Agency, “Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Ms Julie Morris” — source