Thomas Heayel

Introduction

Thomas Heayel was a full-time primary school class teacher at St Columb Minor Academy, part of the Kernow Learning multi-academy trust in Cornwall, when the Local Authority Designated Officer told the school in July 2021 that he had posted inappropriate images of himself on the internet alongside messages offering to sell sexual services. He was suspended the same day, dismissed within three weeks, and admitted both regulatory allegations in full. On 28 June 2022 decision maker Alan Meyrick banned him from teaching, with the prohibition reviewable after two years.

Background Information

Heayel joined St Columb Minor Academy on 1 September 2019. Between 1 February and 31 July 2020 — a period spanning the first coronavirus lockdown, when much schooling moved online — he posted, or allowed to be displayed, one or more inappropriate images of himself on the internet, together with images, messages and comments offering to sell sexual services. The conduct sat outside the classroom: the website carried the material on a restricted area, but the images could also be reached through a generic internet search, and at least one image contained his full name, placing it effectively in the public domain where any member of the public, or any pupil, could find it. The concerns surfaced only a year later, when the LADO contacted the school on 7 July 2021. Heayel was suspended that day, dismissed on 23 July 2021, and the matter was referred to the Teaching Regulation Agency on 28 July 2021. He admitted the facts of both allegations and that they amounted to unacceptable professional conduct and conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute, in a response signed on 21 February 2022 and a statement of agreed facts signed on 7 April 2022; the case was decided without a hearing.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Admitted posting inappropriate images of himself online and offering to sell sexual services while a primary class teacher; dismissed three weeks after the LADO alerted the school; banned from teaching with a two-year review period.

The panel found both particulars proved on his admissions and on the documentary evidence, which included screenshots of the images and several recorded instances in which Heayel fully admitted posting them. It noted that one image carried his name and that the wording of the posts offered sexual services for sale. The panel considered the evidence itself rather than relying on admissions alone, and concluded the conduct breached the Teachers’ Standards on public trust, on regard for the school’s ethos and policies, and on acting within statutory professional duties. Its central aggravation was accessibility: although the website was restricted, the material was recoverable by ordinary search, and his own job description required him to set “a good example though personal presentation and personal and professional conduct”. The panel held that his behaviour “would undoubtedly damage the public’s perception of the teaching profession” and found both unacceptable professional conduct and conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The panel regarded Heayel’s actions as deliberate, with no evidence of extreme duress, and noted that little evidence was offered of a long or distinguished teaching record: the positive references in the bundle related to his original application to the school, and none had been provided since the misconduct. In mitigation it found genuine insight — he never denied the misconduct and was “open and honest about his behaviour” — and accepted there was no evidence he intended the images to travel beyond the restricted site. Emails he sent to the TRA in November 2021 and March 2022 set out personal circumstances for the offending, but the panel noted no supporting evidence was produced. It accepted he was remorseful and that the profiles had been closed months before the referral. Even so, it concluded that publishing the findings alone would unacceptably compromise the public interest, and recommended prohibition with immediate effect. Meyrick imposed the order with a two-year review period.

Current Status

Heayel is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England. He may apply for the order to be set aside after two years — from July 2024 — though an application guarantees nothing: a fresh panel would decide whether the prohibition should lift, and without a successful application the ban is permanent in practice. His dismissal from St Columb Minor Academy took effect on 23 July 2021, a year before the regulatory order, so he had already left the classroom when the ban landed. No criminal prosecution features in the decision; the case travelled from the LADO to the school’s disciplinary process and on to the TRA as a misconduct matter.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The decision is a marker of how far the regulator will reach into a teacher’s private online life when the material is sexual and discoverable: Heayel’s conduct involved no pupil, took place outside school hours and on a restricted website, and still ended a teaching career that had lasted under two years. The panel’s reasoning turned on the ordinary intelligent citizen test — what the public would think of a primary teacher selling sexual services online under his own name — and on the role-model expectation written into his own job description. The two-year review period, rather than a no-review order, tracked that finding of insight and remorse: the panel distinguished between a teacher who denies everything and one who admits, closes the profiles and accepts the harm, even where the conduct itself remains disqualifying. For Kernow Learning, the case underlined the LADO’s role as the external tripwire that surfaced conduct the school had no other way of seeing.

Sources

• Dept for Education, “Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Mr Thomas Heayel” — source