Owen Lowrie

Introduction

Owen Lowrie is a former primary school teacher who worked at Belmont Cheveley Park Primary School in Durham and Grange Park Primary School in Sunderland, and who was prohibited from teaching for life in November 2023 after admitting a pattern of physical boundary-breaking with young pupils — hugging them, letting them sit on his knee, carrying a pupil over his shoulder in a “fireman’s lift” with his hand across the child’s bottom and upper thigh — and a separate online life: sexualised conversations about female children aged 6 to 9 with another person on social media, sending that person a photograph of a pupil’s used underwear, and receiving Category C indecent images of children. Durham Constabulary arrested Lowrie at his school in September 2020, but no criminal charges were brought. He admitted every allegation, and decision maker Sarah Buxcey imposed a prohibition order with no review period and no right ever to apply for restoration.

Background Information

Lowrie taught at Cheveley Park Primary School until April 2020, when he moved to a second school in the area. A senior colleague, Individual A, told the panel that managers had noticed girls holding his hand and standing by him on playground duty, that he had been reminded to encourage children to play with peers, and that on one occasion a leadership team member saw a girl smack his bottom without him discouraging it. She described an “uneasy feeling” and said that in meetings where she raised safeguarding reminders, Lowrie would try to make her feel she had “made a mountain out of a molehill”. In January 2019 she found a girl clinging to his leg with her head close to his groin — he did not move her — and saw the same pupil on his lap, pushing her off only when another staff member walked in.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Admitted misconduct, banned for life. Lowrie admitted allegations 1(a)(i)–(ii) and 1(b)–(f) — hugs, hand-holding, pupils on his knee, the fireman’s-lift carry with a hand over Pupil A’s bottom or upper thigh, picking pupils up and telling them not to mention it — and all of allegation 2: sexualised conversations with Person N about female children aged 6–9, sending images of unknown children, causing Person N to send him Category C indecent images of children, and sending an image of Pupil D’s used underwear. Allegation 3 (sexual motivation) was admitted. The panel found all of these proved; only one particular, letting pupils sit on his knee in June 2018 as pleaded, was found not proven for want of evidence.

The arrest that surfaced the online conduct came on 16 September 2020, when Durham Constabulary officers attended his school and arrested him following a report that he was suspected of engaging in sexualised conversations online relating to children and of receiving indecent images. In police interview he confirmed he had been engaging in sexualised chat about young female children and sending non-nude images of children purporting to be a family member, and admitted he had sent a picture of Pupil D’s used underwear — Pupil D being a pupil at his school. No criminal charges followed. He was suspended, resigned on 24 October 2020, and the school referred him to the TRA on 30 November 2020. The panel also heard that during his police interview he had sent the underwear photograph, taken from the school environment, to another participant in the chats.

The case was decided at a private virtual meeting without a hearing on Lowrie’s request, on a signed statement of agreed facts dated 1 November 2023 admitting unacceptable professional conduct and/or conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute. The panel noted that although he admitted the allegations, it made its own determination on the facts available. On the sexual-motivation allegation it found the conduct sexually motivated, and it treated the online conduct — though outside the education setting — as relevant to teaching because it involved young girls of the same age he taught.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The published decision records no press coverage; the consequences it documents are the arrest at school, the suspension, the October 2020 resignation and the lifetime ban. The panel found a strong public interest in the protection of pupils and the public given “sexually motivated inappropriate behaviour with pupils and sexualised conversations about female children between 6-9 years”, and concluded that public confidence in the profession could be seriously weakened if such conduct were not treated with the utmost seriousness. Individual A’s testimony — the senior colleague who spent years raising concerns and being told she was making mountains out of molehills — stands in the record as the internal response that predated the police.

Current Status

The panel recommended that no provision be made for a review period, citing Advice behaviours that militate against review: serious sexual misconduct, any sexual misconduct involving a child, and any activity involving viewing or receiving indecent images of children. On 10 November 2023, decision maker Sarah Buxcey, acting on behalf of the Secretary of State, prohibited Owen Lowrie from teaching indefinitely — he cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England — and decided that in view of the seriousness of the allegations found proved, he shall not be entitled to apply for restoration of his eligibility to teach. The order took effect from the date it was served on him, with a right of appeal to the King’s Bench Division of the High Court within 28 days.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Lowrie’s is the regulator’s severest tier, and the reasoning is in the finding structure: physical boundary-breaking with pupils, sexual motivation admitted, and a parallel online record — sexualised chat about children the same age as his pupils, indecent images received, a pupil’s used underwear sent to a chat participant — that turned a pattern of “uneasy feeling” complaints into a documented safeguarding catastrophe. The criminal justice system charged him with nothing; the regulator’s ban is the only public sanction on the record. With no review period and no right of restoration, the November 2023 order is permanent unless overturned on High Court appeal.

Sources

• Teaching Regulation Agency, “Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Mr Owen Lowrie” — source