A West London teacher was found to have uploaded “intimate” photos of a “personal nature” to a school iPad.
The Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) did not prohibit the man from teaching again, however the Local Democracy Reporting Service understands he is no longer employed by the Southall school.
The teacher, Mr Trevor Hodge, taught Physical Education (PE) and Health and Social Care at Featherstone High School, Southall. In March 2023, three “intimate images of a personal nature” were found on his school issued iPad whilst it was being prepared to use for student recordings.
Mr Hodge had given the iPad to Witness B to record students for their coursework, however upon accessing the device, they found the intimate pictures. These images were found alongside a range of other non-intimate personal images and applications.
Mr Hodge admitted the allegation of possessing intimate photos on a school iPad, and admitted that the images were of a sexual nature. However, Mr Hodge denied that the incident was sexually motivated, instead arguing it was a mistake.
The panel accepted Mr Hodge’s explanation that he accidentally synced images from his personal phone as there were a number of non-sexual personal images and information documents uploaded at the same time. As such, Mr Hodge was not banned from teaching, however he no longer works at the school.
Another allegation was made against Mr Hodge, however this was not proven. The panel had seen what appeared to be a Facebook post from 2015 under the name ‘Trevor Hodge’ which had posted a comment regarding undertaking a sexual act with reference to a child.
The panel was shown a screenshot of this Facebook post embedded within a message on Snapchat. This was sent by a student to her Head of Year.
The post read: “Just been driving and saw this lovely 13 looking year-old girl. You know I had to just park the car by the side and have a w*** to her whilst she was waiting for the bus at the stop.”
The post, screenshotted in 2021, was considered “substantively inappropriate and/or sexualised” by the panel. However, insufficient efforts had been made to find the original post.
Mr Hodge denied the allegation and presented the panel with a mocked-up version of a Facebook post to demonstrate “how plausible it is to create a fake post”. However, this itself did not convince the panel.
Although, given the lack of evidence showing the original post, or any evidence that could directly implicate Mr Hodge, the panel could not discharge its burden of proof to uphold the allegation, therefore finding it disproven.
The panel was “concerned” by the conduct of Mr Hodge, and considered the syncing of intimate personal images to be a “professional failing”. However, it did not determine that this was serious enough to be considered unacceptable professional conduct, given it amounted to “a lapse in judgement”.
The panel described his actions as “careless” with the potential to bring the profession into disrepute. After a number of positive character witnesses who described Mr Hodge as a “professional and hard-working colleague” the panel decided there was a public interest in Mr Hodge remaining in the teaching profession.
Having accepted that he did not deliberately upload the intimate photos, and the lack of any previous regulatory or disciplinary action against him, the panel decided banning him from teaching would not be proportionate.
On behalf of the Secretary of State, David Oatley upheld the findings and recommendations, believing that the risk of repetition was low. He said: “I have concluded that a prohibition order is not proportionate or in the public interest. I consider that the publication of the findings made would be sufficient to send an appropriate message to the teacher as to the standards of behaviour that were not acceptable and that the publication would meet the public interest requirement of declaring proper standards of the profession.”
Featherstone High School were contacted for comment.
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