Peter Gittins
Introduction
Peter Gittins, the Head of Brass at Hereford Sixth Form College across two stints between 2012 and 2019, is prohibited from teaching for life with no possibility of restoration after admitting to a Teaching Regulation Agency panel that he engaged in a sustained sexual relationship with a pupil between 2004 and 2010 — beginning when he was a peripatetic brass tutor and she was a school-age pupil — and that he failed to maintain professional boundaries with a second pupil. The then-74-year-old admitted every allegation in a signed statement of agreed facts, and his case was decided without a hearing. The decision maker, Alan Meyrick, ruled on 24 May 2021 that the seriousness of the admitted sexual misconduct meant he shall never be entitled to apply to teach again.
Background Information
Gittins worked at Hereford Sixth Form College as Head of Brass from 1 September 2012 to 31 December 2014, and again from 20 August 2016 until his resignation on 25 June 2019. In the role he taught one-to-one lessons to A-Level music students and pupils on the college’s instrumental scholarship programme. The admitted conduct, however, predates his college employment: between 2004 and 2010 he worked as a peripatetic tutor at a number of primary schools and conducted a youth concert band, and it was in that period that the relationship with Pupil A — a girl who later attended the college for her A-Levels, though he never taught her there — took place. Pupil B, who received no tuition from him at the college, was a member of the band he conducted.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Admitted conduct, never charged. Gittins admitted every allegation below in a signed statement of agreed facts. The police investigated after Pupil A gave a statement in 2019 and took no further action, so nothing here was charged or tested in a criminal court — the facts stand as admissions before a professional conduct panel, not criminal findings.
The admissions span every element of the relationship. Between 2004 and 2010 Gittins texted and phoned Pupil A, hugged her, met her after school, drove her in his car, visited her home and had her to his, kissed her on the head, lips and body, touched her bottom, under her top and between her legs, masturbated her and allowed her to masturbate him, engaged in and received oral sex, and had sexual intercourse with her. He also admitted buying and sending her a sex toy — a “midnight massager”. With Pupil B he admitted texting and hugging her in the same period. He admitted the conduct was of a sexual nature and sexually motivated. A video-recorded police interview Pupil A gave in June 2019, and her consistent written statements, supported the admissions in full.
The panel noted the case did not emerge until 2018, when Pupil A made disclosures about conduct dating back to 2004. She provided a written statement to police and was interviewed on 9 June 2019; the police investigated but ultimately took no further action. A LADO meeting was convened on 20 June 2019 — the panel also had evidence of a 2010 LADO investigation into an alleged inappropriate comment to another pupil, with the LADO describing “grooming style behaviours” — and Gittins resigned from the college with immediate effect on 25 June 2019. The panel found all allegations proved, observing that Pupil A gave “compelling and credible evidence of the way in which Mr Gittins exploited his position and her vulnerability over a sustained period”.
Public Reaction and Consequences
There was no hearing to react to: the TRA agreed to Gittins’s request that the allegations be considered without one, and the panel decided the case on his signed admissions. The panel weighed submissions about his mental health and the absence of safeguarding training and guidance at the time of the conduct, but found them unconvincing against the seriousness of what was admitted, and — despite his statement that he had no intention of returning to teaching — was not satisfied he would act differently in a similar situation. It noted testimonial evidence describing him as “upright and moral” in his dealings but gave it less weight because it could not be tested. The public-facing consequence was the published decision itself and a prohibition that removes him permanently from every regulated teaching role in England.
Current Status
Gittins is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England. Meyrick’s order of 24 May 2021 went beyond a standard ban: in view of the seriousness of the allegations found proved, the decision maker ruled he “shall not be entitled to apply for restoration of his eligibility to teach” — closing even the normal review route back into the classroom. The panel had recommended exactly that, finding prohibition proportionate despite the submissions in his support. The decision records no criminal conviction, no media coverage and no public comment from Gittins beyond his formal admissions.
Impact on Their Career/Life
The case ends a music-teaching career that ran from peripatetic primary tuition through to a sixth-form department headship, and it does so with the regulator’s most severe outcome short of criminal proceedings: a ban with no restoration right. Its evidentiary shape is notable — no prosecution was ever brought, and the entire record rests on the perpetrator’s own admissions matched against his victim’s consistent account, given first to police and then to the regulator. For the site it documents how the safeguarding system eventually catches up with historical abuse in music tuition: a 2010 LADO flag noting “grooming style behaviours” was followed nearly a decade later by disclosures that ended the career the earlier warning had not.