A head of history who posted images of children on to a website that he knew was frequented by paedophiles has been banned from teaching for life.

A professional conduct panel of the Teaching Regulation Agency found that the behaviour was “wholly incompatible with being a teacher”.

Steven Birkett joined Chenderit School, in Oxfordshire, as a history teacher in May 2001 and was subsequently promoted to head of the history department.

He obtained photos from Facebook of an individual’s two children and posted them on to a Russian website without the consent of either the parent or the school. The panel’s report does not specify whether the children were pupils at the school where Mr Birkett taught.

Although the images Mr Birkett posted were neither sexual nor indecent, and the site is legal, he knew that it was frequented by individuals with a sexual interest in children.

The images of the two children were on the website for at least 10 days, and a school uniform in one of the photographs raised a potential risk that they could be identified.

Mr Birkett also set up a profile on a website using an email address containing the name of a pupil, which stayed on the website for more than two months.

‘Premeditated and deliberate’

Mr Birkett was suspended after Northamptonshire Police began an investigation in November 2016 relating to the photos posted on the website.

Though the investigation led to no further action, he became subject to a disciplinary process in March 2017 but resigned in May prior to its conclusion.

The panel said that the teacher had breached the privacy of the three children concerned. Although he had admitted his actions, these were “premeditated and deliberate” and were not isolated incidents, it concluded. 

The panel noted: “More importantly, there had been no acknowledgement of the effect his actions were likely to have had on the children involved or their families or of the danger that they were exposed to by him.

“Although Mr Birkett has made admissions to the facts, the panel is not satisfied that he has shown an adequate degree of insight into his conduct.”

The panel recommended that he should be banned with immediate effect. 

Ruling on behalf of education secretary Damian Hinds, Alan Meyrick said Mr Birkett ‘s actions in uploading photographs of children to the website, knowing that it was frequented by people with a sexual interest in children, were a “gravely serious matter.”

Mr Meyrick concluded that, given “the seriousness of the allegations found proved against him”, Mr Birkett should be banned from teaching indefinitely and cannot reapply to teach in the future.