A former deputy headteacher has been banned from the profession after exchanging inappropriate text messages - including some late at night - with a child.

Darren Neve, who worked at Grange Community Junior school in Farnborough, Hampshire, discussed the child’s sexuality and made inappropriate comments.

He also sent him a video of a paedophile hunter after finding out that the child may have been forming a close relationship with a male over 17 years old.

Mr Neve, 49, has admitted the allegations and was found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct by the Teaching Regulation Agency.

He can apply for the teaching ban to be reviewed after three years.

Mr Neve, who had been employed by his school since September 1998, resigned from his position following an investigation in December 2019.

The panel heard that Mr Neve engaged in “an inappropriate communication and/or failed to maintain appropriate boundaries with the child” during October to November 2019.

Teacher discussed child’s sexuality

It noted that Mr Neve never had a teaching relationship with the child and had met him on a website intended for those over 16 years old.

However, the panel considered the child’s age should have alerted Mr Neve to his duty to safeguard and maintain professional boundaries.

In considering the evidence, it noted a message sent to the child asking if he was gay or bi-sexual.

Mr Neve’s explanation that he’d mistakenly sent it to the child instead of a friend as part of a dare was considered unconvincing.

The panel was also satisfied that Mr Neve had said, “It’s not all about size,” after the child had commented about the size of Mr Neve’s cat.

It considered Mr Neve’s explanation that he was actually talking about his cat to be unpersuasive and concluded that the messages had “innuendo connotations”.

The paedophile hunter video was sent by Mr Neve after he heard from the child that he was forming a relationship with another, older, male.

The panel heard that Mr Neve had initially taken this seriously and suggested he would report the incident and tell the child’s father.

However, while this caused upset to the child, Mr Neve took no meaningful steps to protect him and “went on to revert to inappropriate messages”, according to the panel.

In mitigation, the panel heard Mr Neve had been under significant strain at work.

In particular, he said that he had been asked to teach a Year 3 class for the first time, which would have involved considerable preparation time alongside his deputy headteacher role and heavy workload.

Mr Neve claimed this - and a combination of other factors - led to a terrible error of judgement in his actions.

The panel acknowledged Mr Neve had been in the profession for 27 years, with references attesting to his strong relationships with parents and students.

However, it also noted he had received a first written warning, in November 2018, in relation to inappropriate text messages of a sexual nature to a female colleague.

He had also had several opportunities where he could have, but intentionally failed to, stop communications with the child, the panel found.