The obscene messages from Birmingham teacher to former pupils which led to his ban for life

A Birmingham teacher has been banned from the profession for life after sending sexually explicit messages to two former pupils in Facebook exchanges. Mark Hunt who latterly taught at Bartley Green School and previously at Ark Kings Academy in Kings Norton has been booted out of the profession and told he can never return after his actions were considered by the Teaching Regulation Agency’s (TRA) professional conduct panel in September.

Mr Hunt, was a former geography teacher at Bartley Green School from April 2019, until he was suspended on June 14, 2021, three days after he was arrested for a related offence. He had previously taught at Ark Kings Academy from September 2016 to April 2019.

He was found to have sent sexually explicit and sexually motivated messages to two of his former pupils, one still a child, in February and June 2021. He accepted a police caution on March 17, 2023, for attempting to cause a girl aged between 13 and 15 to engage in sexual activity with him, related to messages sent to ‘Pupil J’ in February 2021.

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The TRA panel looked at the messages sent to ‘Pupil J’, via Facebook Messenger, between February 7 and 8, 2021. She was still a pupil at the academy at the time and was under 16. These included him asking her if she fancied him and if she wanted sex.

The messages were said to have been ‘innocuous’ at first but that Mr Hunt ‘unilaterally, sought to manoeuvre the conversation to matters of a sexual 8 nature, which Pupil J immediately highlighted as being inappropriate’. Despite her response, Mr Hunt then ‘alluded to the girl’s appearance, asked about her relationship status and then ‘explicitly sexual matters’ which Pupil J ‘by no means encouraged’.”

The panel said the girl was ‘understandably’ made to feel uncomfortable. He is also said to have referenced and ‘sought to leverage’ his status as the girl’s former teacher – which the panel said was a ‘concerning feature of his actions’.

It also considered messages sent in June 2021, which began after a former student of the academy, called ‘Pupil A’, sent Mr Hunt a friend request on Facebook. He did not accept it but that evening went on Facebook Messenger and asked the girl if she fancied him, if she wanted to have sex with him, if she masturbated and if she shaved.

Mr Hunt sent a string of inappropriate messages to his former pupil and said: “So do you fancy me? x”; “Did you ever fantasise about me? x”; “Did you masterbate [sic] thinking about us? X”; “I’ve thought about you x”; “So have you stroked thinking of me? x”; “So do you want sex with me if you could? X” and “Breast size? x”.”

He admitted sending all the messages, that they were of a sexual nature, some sexually explicit and inappropriate. They were considered inappropriate given Pupil A’s age, being a recent former pupil at the academy and that he ‘repeatedly attempted to focus the conversation on matters of a sexual nature’.

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Mr Hunt had resigned from the Bartley Green School on November 29, 2021, while an independent investigation into his behaviour was underway. And at the TRA professional conduct panel meeting his behaviour was found to have ‘amounted to a breach of his position of trust as a teacher’. He was found guilty of ‘unacceptable professional conduct’ and his actions were ‘conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute’.

The panel found Mr Hunt has an ‘otherwise unblemished record’. And had received ‘some positive references regarding his practice as a teacher’. He had ‘engaged with the TRA and made full admissions’. And provided evidence regarding ‘personal and health difficulties at the relevant time’.

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But his behaviour was considered ‘deliberate’, ‘sexually motivated’, exploited his position as a teacher, breached the teachers’ Standards, amounted to a criminal offence with one set of messages and ‘raised serious public and child protection concerns’.

The panel also said there was ‘no evidence of insight, regret or remorse’. His submission to the TRA ‘focussed on himself and his family, whilst making no reference to the pupils or the implications of his actions’. It then recommended that Mr Hunt be banned from teaching ‘with immediate effect’. Given there was serious sexual misconduct and sexual misconduct involving a child, the panel said ‘his behaviour was fundamentally incompatible with his being a teacher’ and there would be no review period.