Paul Rajasegaram

Introduction

Paul Rajasegaram is a former music teacher at Oaklands School in Tower Hamlets, London, who was prohibited from teaching for life in October 2023 after convictions for distributing and making indecent photographs of children. He was arrested on school premises in January 2018, dismissed that May, and in May 2021 was sentenced to a total of 27 months’ imprisonment at Southwark Crown Court. A Teaching Regulation Agency panel found the allegations proved on the certificate of conviction and his own admissions, and the Secretary of State’s decision maker imposed a prohibition order with no review period, after the panel found no evidence of remorse and insufficient insight to indicate he would not pose a threat in the future.

Background Information

Rajasegaram began at Oaklands School in September 2016 as a music teacher, delivering one-to-one and small-group tuition. On 4 January 2018 he was arrested on school premises over allegations of possession and distribution of indecent images of children, and on 11 May 2018 the school terminated his contract. At Southwark Crown Court he was convicted on 14 April 2021 of two counts of distributing indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children and three counts of making them, all contrary to the Protection of Children Act 1978, and was sentenced on 19 May 2021. The sentencing recorded 27 months’ imprisonment, an indefinite sexual harm prevention order, possible placement on the Disclosure and Barring Service barring list, and 10 years on the sex offenders register.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted maker and distributor of indecent images. A TRA panel found proved the convictions of Mr Rajasegaram for two counts of distributing and three counts of making indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children, which he admitted.

The police found on his laptop 11 Category A images, 11 at Category B and 46 at Category C — Category A being the most serious — and searched his Skype account, identifying a further 18 Category A and 2 Category C images. He used Skype to communicate with and distribute images to third parties, and took an active role in a website that let him share material with others who shared his sexual interest in children. The panel recorded the sentencing judge’s remarks that Rajasegaram had readily and enthusiastically engaged in conversations about the sexual abuse of students who were in his care, that some images involved children as young as three, and that in some the children were in discernible pain and distress. The panel noted there was no evidence any image depicted a pupil at his school. He provided a signed statement of agreed facts and admitted the conviction; his case was decided at a private meeting on 3 October 2023 without a hearing.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The published decision records no press coverage; the documented consequences are the 27-month sentence, the indefinite sexual harm prevention order, sex offender registration, and the loss of his teaching career. The panel treated the custody threshold, the young ages of the children depicted and the judge’s finding that he spoke enthusiastically about abusing pupils in his care as aggravating features of the gravest kind. It found a strong public interest in the protection of pupils and in maintaining confidence in a profession whose members are trusted with children’s safety, and concluded that public confidence would be seriously weakened if such conduct were not treated with the utmost seriousness. The panel also noted the images were possessed and distributed over a lengthy period, not a single lapse.

Current Status

The panel recommended a prohibition order with no review period, citing the Advice’s instruction that any activity involving viewing, taking, making, possessing, distributing or publishing indecent images of children weighs in favour of no review — including one-off incidents, which this was not. It found no evidence of remorse and insufficient insight to indicate Rajasegaram would not pose a future threat. On 12 October 2023, decision maker Marc Cavey, acting for the Secretary of State, confirmed the order without provisions for a review period. Paul Rajasegaram is prohibited from teaching indefinitely — the ban covers every school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation and children’s home in England — with no entitlement to apply for restoration. The order took effect on service, with a right of appeal to the High Court within 28 days.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Rajasegaram’s teaching career ended with his arrest in front of colleagues on school grounds in January 2018; the conviction, the prison term and the lifetime ban mean he can never work with children in any regulated setting in England again. The decision’s harshest line is the judge’s finding, recorded by the panel, of what he said in conversations about the abuse of students in his care — words that turned a classroom trust role into an aggravating feature at sentencing. Combined with the indefinite prevention order and a decade on the sex offenders register, the prohibition forecloses not just teaching but the wider field of child-facing work.

Sources

• Teaching Regulation Agency, “Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Mr Paul Rajasegaram” — source