A private school teacher has been banned from the profession for sexually touching a pupil in his charge.
Robbie Brittain, who taught at the £32,000-a-year Langley School boarding school in Norfolk, was barred from teaching for touching her “vaginal area” during after-school lessons.
The former physics teacher was cleared of criminal child sexual offences in January 2016 and settled with the school in the following months.
But a conduct panel, which applies a different standard of proof, banned the 33-year-old after finding the allegations proven “on the balance of probabilities”.
It heard that Mr Brittain first became friendly with the girl, known as Pupil A, during a school trip in 2012, when she was having trouble at home.
When they arrived back, he agreed to give her a lift to meet her mother, during which time she alleges he touched her inner thigh.
In early 2013 he started giving her extra physics lessons twice a week which they held in communal rooms around the school.
The panel heard that within a few weeks Mr Brittain, who was engaged at the time, started “touching her vaginal area” and “putting her hand on his private parts”.
In court documents, the girl described how he would “place a coat over both of them which…served the purpose of concealing this mutual touching”.
“Pupil A stated that in the course of these interactions, semen or pre-ejaculate fluid came into contact with her and her textbooks,” the report added.
The issue came to light when Pupil A told friends during a school trip, who told a teacher, who in turn reported it to police.
Mr Brittain denied the charges and says the girl, who he described as “a troubled young woman prone to lying and exaggeration,” was lying for attention.
But the teacher disciplinary panel ruled it “could detect no motivation” for the student to “fabricate allegations”.
“The panel is of the view that the account given by Pupil A was entirely convincing and has the ring of truth to it,” the report added.
“The panel could detect no motivation to fabricate allegations or, importantly, persist in such allegations when giving evidence on oath many years later and long after she had left the school.
“The conduct of Mr Brittain amounts to misconduct of a serious nature, which fell significantly short of the standards expected of the profession.”
Home Office decision maker Alan Meyrick agreed and banned Mr Brittain from teaching indefinitely.
“In my view, it is necessary to impose a prohibition order in order to maintain public confidence in the profession,” he said.
As part of the order, Mr Brittain is not entitled to apply for restoration of his eligibility to teach. He can, however, appeal the decision to the High Court.
