Lee Myers

Introduction

Lee Myers taught at the Oldershaw Academy in Wirral between 2008 and 2016. In May 2023 a Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) professional conduct panel found that he had failed to maintain professional boundaries with a pupil, Pupil A, through text messages, physical contact, car journeys and sexual remarks, and that the conduct was of a sexual nature and sexually motivated. The findings came six years after a jury acquitted him of all ten criminal charges arising from the same incidents; the panel reached the opposite conclusion on the civil standard of proof. Decision maker Alan Meyrick prohibited him from teaching indefinitely, with no review period and no right to apply for restoration.

Background Information

Myers worked at the Oldershaw Academy from 2008 to 2016. In 2016, while the matters were being investigated, he was interviewed by police, and on 15 April 2016 he was made redundant from the school. In July 2017 a criminal trial of ten charges against him took place and he was acquitted of all counts against him. The TRA hearing followed in April 2023, five years later still, on allegations of unacceptable professional conduct and conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute. Myers denied the allegations, waived his right to attend, and appeared neither in person nor through representation, offering written representations as his only evidence.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Acquitted at trial, banned by the regulator. The July 2017 jury acquitted Myers of all ten charges. The panel then found the same underlying conduct proved on the balance of probabilities, resting its conclusions on the consistency of the two pupils’ accounts across police interviews and oral evidence.

The panel’s findings centre on 2016. An examination of Pupil A’s phone recovered text exchanges between her and Myers from 4 March to 1 April 2016, all but the last three deleted, including “Really well done, congrats.” and “How mate”. Pupil A described a text from an unknown number, then — five minutes after Myers told Pupil B “don’t you hate it when you get ignored by girls” — a follow-up reading “Yes, I’m talking about you by the way.” She said he told her to stop texting because it was making her uncomfortable, and that he once took her unlocked phone, and later angrily asked her “why have you still got the messages off me”. A fellow pupil, Pupil C, described hearing Myers tell Pupil A to meet him at a train station so they could get a hotel or go to his home, and messages signalled with other names such as “You there, John?” — which the panel read as an attempt to conceal that the messages were directed at her.

The physical findings were more serious. The panel found Myers squeezed Pupil A’s neck, put his hand down her back and underneath her bra strap — laughing “don’t be boring” when she objected — hit her head and arm, and took her and another pupil on an unauthorised drive to Liverpool. During that journey, the panel found, he offered the other pupil a bottle of vodka if she would perform sexual acts on him, grabbed Pupil A’s head and kissed her while pinching the back of her neck, and placed his hand on her leg. Pupil C, who observed some of the classroom contact, told the panel that on reflection his playfighting “seemed more intended to hurt Pupil A”. The panel found every particular proved, found Myers lacked insight into boundary concerns first raised around 2008, and concluded his actions were deliberate and sexually motivated.

Public Reaction and Consequences

No press coverage attaches to the case; the published decision is the public record. The consequences moved through the school, the criminal courts and the regulator in sequence: the police interview in 2016, the redundancy within weeks, the acquittal of 2017, and the TRA proceedings begun only in January 2023. The panel treated the acquittal as no bar to its own findings, noting it had the benefit of Myers’ evidence from the criminal trial and that its task was decided on different standards of proof. In its recommendation it stated: “The panel found that Mr Myers was responsible for using his professional position to exploit Pupil A and to engage in conduct with her that was of a sexual nature and which was sexually motivated.” Meyrick adopted that finding as the decisive factor.

Current Status

Myers 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 further decided that he shall not be entitled to apply for restoration of his eligibility to teach. The determination is dated 28 April 2023, with Meyrick’s order dated 3 May 2023, effective from service. He retains a right of appeal to the King’s Bench Division of the High Court within 28 days of notice of the order; the published record shows none was filed.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Myers’ case is the regulator’s clearest statement that an acquittal ends only the criminal case. The panel accepted the same acts had been put to a jury and rejected, then found them proved six years later on witness-consistency reasoning, and treated his continued denial of any impropriety as absence of insight — a factor Meyrick weighed heavily in refusing any review period. For teachers facing parallel proceedings, the sequence shows the professional case can be the one with the lasting consequence: the ban is for life, restoration is closed, and the acquittal appears in the published decision only as context.

Sources

• Dept for Education, “Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Mr Lee Myers” — source