AFTER an attempt to have his misconduct hearing held behind closed doors, a former teacher at East Tilbury Primary School has been found guilty of inappropriate conduct, which included sexual connotations.

The incidents all related to events 20 years ago and were connected to a school in Kent where he was a PE teacher.

Anthony Bennett – who until recently worked at East Tilbury but had left before the hearing – was found to have had a sexual relationship with a teenage pupil aged 16 after she left Swan Valley Community School in Kent where Mr Bennett taught.

He has been banned from ever teaching again. Mr Bennett denied the allegation and alleged that the witnesses had conspired against him.

Mr Bennett, 52, was found to have committed "serious" misconduct between 2001 and 2003 when he entered a relationship with the pupil shortly after she left school. It resulted in the pupil's family throwing her out of the home.

A Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) tribunal heard two pupils had been at the school when Bennett was appointed in September 2000, and remained friends after leaving. It wasn't until September 2020 that Pupil A chose to disclose the "inappropriate" relationships they had with Mr Bennett to the authorities.

The TRA panel said the weight of evidence against Mr Bennett was compelling.

The panel said: "If Mr Bennett's account of collusion was correct, this would have required elaborate fabrication and significant planning which was highly implausible and not borne out in the evidence."

It added: "The panel considered engaging in the inappropriate relationship and engaging in a sexual relationship, the seeds of which were sown whilst she was still at the School, was conduct falling significantly short of the expected standards of a teacher, even at that time in the early 2000s."

Head of the panel Marc Cavey said: "In my view, it is necessary to impose a prohibition order in order to maintain public confidence in the profession."

Mr Bennett, who had asked that the hearing be behind closed doors and its findings not published because of the impact on his family, has been banned from teaching in England indefinitely.

The full findings of the panel can be viewed via this link.