Government ‘Opus Dei’ Member Gives Sex Offender Teaching Job

Note: Ruth Kelly is also a member of the secretive and powerful ‘Opus Dei’.

A registered sex offender given clearance by Education Secretary Ruth Kelly to work as a teacher landed a job in a high school, it has emerged. But he was stopped from taking the post when police protested.

Ms Kelly decided not to ban him because she apparently believed evidence he had accessed paedophile websites was inconclusive.

The teacher, who is on the sex offenders register, was given a job at Norwich’s Hewett School last month.

Ms Kelly had handed approval for him to work in schools the previous May.

The Department for Education (DfES) wrote to Norfolk County Council saying that she had “considered all aspects of the case, including sex offender registration, and decided that the risks of the teacher being allowed to continue teaching were acceptable”.

The department’s Safeguarding Children Unit said Ms Kelly did not believe he belonged on list 99, the national list of people barred from working with children.

But police reportedly followed strict Home Office guidelines in placing him on the sex offenders register, and have privately expressed deep reservations about her decision.

Norfolk police spokesman Simon Morgan said: “Swift action was taken as soon as this matter came to our attention.

“We convened an urgent meeting with all relevant partner agencies and individuals, including the headteacher, to review the situation and determine the most appropriate course of action.”

‘Review under way’

Lisa Christensen of Norfolk Social Services said: “This case highlights a serious policy contradiction that we are keen the DfES addresses as a matter of urgency - namely, that it is possible for a teacher to have their name on the sex offender register, but not on list 99 - which is the list that automatically bars people from teaching or working with children, and is routinely checked.

“We have written to the DfES highlighting these concerns, and been informed they are reviewing these matters currently.

“When the police became aware that this person had been offered a job at a school, they contacted us … we took immediate action … and the school suspended the person concerned pending a full assessment and investigation.”

The school’s head, Tom Samain, and governors’ chairman, Marion Wright, voiced concern in a joint statement.

‘Stringent measures’

“The person concerned is no longer employed, and there will be a full examination of the process in this case,” they said.

“This is the first time we have had such a case and received such a notification from the DfES.

“We are concerned at the policy contradictions it throws up, and have raised our concerns with the DfES.”

The Department for Education insisted in a statement: “Stringent measures are put into action where there is evidence of a threat to children.”

BBC