William Gee

Introduction

William Gee is a former Head of Music and Assistant Headteacher at St Benedict’s Catholic High School in Warwickshire, banned from teaching for life in May 2025 after accepting a police caution for making an indecent video of a child. In October 2022, a person Gee believed was a romantically interested adult sent him an unsolicited video of a 15-year-old engaged in a sexual act; Gee kept it on his device for nearly a year, never reported it, and told the panel he stayed silent because he feared losing the person’s interest. When police arrested him in October 2023 and analysed his phone, the video was still there. He accepted a caution from West Mercia Police, was dismissed from both his jobs — the school and a cathedral post — and was placed on the Sex Offenders Register for two years. The TRA panel found his insight incomplete and recommended prohibition with no review period; the decision maker agreed and removed any right to apply for restoration.

Background Information

Gee had taught since September 2016, first at an inner-city Birmingham school and then at St Benedict’s Catholic High School in Warwickshire, where he led the music department and rose into pastoral and senior leadership as Assistant Headteacher. His own mitigation letter describes an unblemished record: improved exam outcomes, a rebuilt personal-development curriculum, a co-authored behaviour and reward policy, and a 2022 parent nomination for the Pearson National Teaching Awards’ “Unsung Hero” award. He also held a cathedral post, which he lost alongside the school job after his arrest. The panel stressed the aggravating shape of his role: as a senior leader he carried significant safeguarding responsibilities, received safeguarding training, and was likely to have delivered that training to others — the person best placed to know exactly what reporting an indecent image of a child required.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Adjudicated vs. alleged. Gee admitted the facts of all allegations, accepted a police caution — an admission of guilt for the offence — and admitted unacceptable professional conduct. The caution and his admissions are matters of record; no allegations were contested or remain unproven.

On 28 October 2022, an individual Gee had met online — Individual A in the decision, whom he believed was a romantically interested adult — sent him an unsolicited video showing a 15-year-old engaged in non-penetrative sexual activity, verified as category B indecent content of a child. Gee moved the conversation from one app to WhatsApp because, in his account, he believed he was forming a genuine connection with someone romantically interested in him. He did not delete the video, did not report it to police or anyone else, and told the panel in his written statement: “After sending me the unsolicited indecent image I failed to report this incident to the police. I regret this immensely, and on reflection, believe this to be because I was scared that any action would jeopardise the interest this individual had shown me.” The video survived on his device as a thumbnail until his October 2023 arrest, when forensic analysis found it — and found no evidence he had ever searched for other indecent material. He accepted a caution from West Mercia Police on 14 December 2023 for making a photograph or pseudo-photograph of a child, was dismissed by the school that December and by the cathedral employer in February 2024, and received a two-year placement on the Sex Offenders Register.

The panel accepted that Gee derived no sexual gratification from the image itself and that his motive was pursuing a relationship with the person who sent it — but found that made the conduct sexually motivated “to the extent that it was in pursuit of a future sexual relationship”, not exculpatory. On mitigation, it noted he had completed Stop It Now self-help modules, abandoned social media and dating apps, and called the incident “the biggest regret of my life” — yet found his insight incomplete because much of his account centred the consequences to himself rather than the child in the video, and because he remained unable to speak openly about the circumstances. The safeguarding failure was the panel’s gravest count: a senior leader whose job was to protect children held evidence of a child’s sexual exploitation for a year and reported it to no one.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The consequences moved quickly once police became involved in October 2023: dismissal from the school on 5 December 2023, dismissal from the cathedral post on 9 February 2024, the caution in between. The decision does not quote press coverage; the public record is the caution, the register placement, and the published ban. The panel noted the offence was serious and involved an indecent video of a child, resulting in the two-year register term. In his mitigation Gee described going from award-nominated senior leader to summarily dismissed twice over, writing that his handling of the incident was “by far, the biggest regret of my life to date” and that he remained “even more motivated to ensure young people are protected from harm” — remorse the panel accepted as sincere but insight it found incomplete. His union representative told the panel he still could not discuss the events openly, a fact the panel weighed against the depth of rehabilitation he claimed.

Current Status

The panel found allegations 1 through 4 proved on 2 May 2025, all on Gee’s admissions, and recommended prohibition with immediate effect and no review period. On 9 May 2025, Sarah Buxcey, deciding for the Secretary of State, prohibited Gee from teaching indefinitely, barred him from any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England, and removed any entitlement to apply for restoration. The decision maker cited the seriousness of the findings and the lack of full insight. His two-year Sex Offenders Register placement from the 2023 caution runs to late 2025, and the caution itself remains on his criminal record through Disclosure and Barring Service checks, barring work with children and vulnerable adults regardless of the register. He retains a 28-day appeal right; no published record shows him using it.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Seven years of teaching, a head of department title, an assistant headship, and a national award nomination ended because he kept a video rather than reporting it. The panel’s reasoning draws the line sharply: the offence was not that Gee sought out indecent material — he never had, before or since — but that a designated safeguarding leader, the person whose entire senior role was to act on exactly this evidence, chose his romantic prospects over a child’s protection and stayed silent for a year. His own words to the panel — that he feared reporting would “jeopardise the interest this individual had shown me” — became the case’s defining quote. The case leaves him barred from teaching for life with no restoration route, on the sex offenders register, dismissed from both employers, and carrying a caution that forecloses any child-facing work. For the profession, it is a senior-leader safeguarding failure prosecuted to the maximum regulatory outcome on admissions alone.

Sources

• Dept for Education, “Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Mr William Gee” — source