Teacher who let sex offender partner into Bucks school grounds avoids teaching ban

A woman who allowed her sex offender partner into a school’s grounds in Buckinghamshire has not been banned from teaching.

The Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) said it would not issue a prohibition order against Ms Alice Cresswell, who worked as a teacher at St Monica’s Catholic Primary School in Milton Keynes from September 2022 to July 2023.

A professional conduct panel in August described her actions as ‘naïve’ and a ‘very serious lapse of judgment’.

Ms Cresswell started a relationship with ‘Person A’ in 2018, before the individual was convicted of making indecent images of children three years later and was placed on the sex offender’s register for five years and sentenced to a community order for three years.

The anonymous man was further convicted of making, distributing, and possessing indecent images of children in 2022.

Ms Cresswell told the panel that he committed his offence ‘a long time before’ he met her ‘after inadvertently clicking on a pop-up advert and viewing indecent images of children out of curiosity’.

The former teacher said she had relied on advice given to her by another person and ‘felt that she did not need’ to disclose her relationship with Person A to the school, while he also told her that he had conducted research and that his conviction ‘wasn’t going to impact her job’.

A decision maker for the TRA said: “Given that Ms Cresswell was aware that Person A had already lied to her about his conviction and failed to inform her that he was on the sex offenders register, the panel found her trust in the information he provided somewhat naïve.”

The watchdog also found that on or around March 31 last year, Ms Cresswell allowed her partner to drive her into the school grounds when she ‘knew that they posed a risk to children’.

In her evidence, the former teacher accepted that there was ‘no justification for allowing Person A’ into the school grounds and, in hindsight, she could see that this posed a ‘big risk’ to pupils.

In January last year, Person A was arrested and the police searched Ms Cresswell’s home, where he was living. She initially claimed the police search was related to stolen laptops, before admitting the truth during a meeting at which she was suspended. She later apologised for lying about the reason for the search.

In considering whether to impose a teaching ban on Ms Cresswell, the panel considered several mitigating factors, including that she ‘had an otherwise unblemished record’, was popular with pupils and staff, ‘was a very good teacher’ and ‘did not feel well-equipped’ by the school’s safeguarding training.

However, the panel also said Ms Cresswell’s actions amounted to a breach of the teachers’ standards, that she mislead the school and that her actions had the potential to impact on pupils.

A TRA decision maker 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.”

Ms Cresswell has not worked as a teacher since leaving St Monica’s but has got a job in retail which she feels is ‘helping her to regain the confidence she lost as a result of her suspension’.

A spokesperson for St Monica’s told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “At St Monica’s Catholic Primary School, we are fully committed to the safeguarding and wellbeing of our pupils, in line with national guidance.

“We work closely with the relevant authorities to ensure the safety of our pupils and in this case, a teacher lost her position, and all appropriate action has been taken.

“Our Ofsted inspection in June 2024 highlighted that the school has created an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts our pupils’ interests first and that safeguarding is effective.”