Scarborough teacher banned from classroom for life after making child abuse images

Joseph Long, who previously worked at St Augustine’s Catholic School, pleaded guilty to two charges of making indecent images of children at North Yorkshire Magistrates’ Court in April 2021.

He also admitted possession of an extreme pornographic image – of a person performing a sex act on a dog.

Long was arrested in 2019 after an email address associated with him uploaded a Category C image of a young teenage girl.

His home was searched by police who seized several devices and discovered one Category A image – the most serious – and six Category C images.

There is no suggestion that any pupils at St Augustine’s were involved.

Long, who is now 69-years-old, was sentenced in May 2021 to a two-year community order and ordered to undertake an accredited sexual offending programme, up to 30 days of rehabilitation activity requirements and 180 hours of unpaid work.

He was also made to sign the sex offenders’ register for five years and is subject to a sexual harm prevention order for five years.

Now, a professional conduct panel of the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) has determined that Long should be banned from the profession for the remainder of his life.

A report published by the authority said: “In the light of the panel’s findings against Mr Long, there was a strong public interest consideration in respect of the protection of pupils and the public given the risk of harm children could be exposed to by those involved in downloading sexual images of children.

“Similarly, the panel considered that public confidence in the profession could be seriously weakened if conduct such as that found against Mr Long were not treated with the utmost seriousness when regulating the conduct of the profession.”

In a letter to the TRA, Long wrote that by the time he was no longer on the sex offenders’ register, aged 72, he would not be returning to teaching.

He “humbly suggested” that a prohibition order was therefore “unnecessary” and would “serve only to deepen my shame and add to my punishment”.

The panel concluded that Long’s conduct “fell significantly short” of the standards expected of the profession and determined that a prohibition order is “proportionate and in the public interest”.

Sarah Buxcey, acting on behalf of the Education Secretary, granted the prohibition order on March 24, which means Joseph Long is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England.