Sydney Russell School, Dagenham teacher lied about convictions

Robert Brathwaite has now been banned from teaching for life because he lied about details of his past convictions which included battery and possessing criminal property, a professional conduct panel found.

It concluded that while Sydney Russell School in Dagenham was aware of many of his convictions, he intentionally provided misleading and inaccurate information about some of them when applying for the teaching role.

Mr Brathwaite had applied for the job on June 7, 2016 and began working at the school on July 1, 2016.

On July 26, 2017, the Teaching Regulations Agency (TRA) received a referral concerning Mr Brathwaite. A professional conduct panel took place between September 17 and September 20 of this year in which Mr Brathwaite told the TRA he would not be attending the hearing.

The panel were shown court copies of the certificates for each conviction.

Mr Brathwaite was convicted at Snaresbrook Crown Court on July 26, 2005 of driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence, using a vehicle whilst uninsured and possession of criminal property and he was convicted at the same court on April 19, 2007 of battery.

The report said he was also convicted of fraud on May 6, 2009 at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in that he dishonestly made a false representation to make a gain for himself contrary to sections 1 and 2 of the Fraud Act 2006.

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The panel also heard that while Mr Brathwaite was employed as a teacher, but not during the actual course of teaching, he was convicted at Snaresbrook Crown Court on July 25, 2019 of sexual assault of a female aged 13 years or over by penetration. They also heard he had sex with a colleague in school and anyone could have walked in and seen it.

The panel noted that since the beginning of its investigation Mr Brathwaite’s surname was spelt differently throughout documents.

The presenting officer said "every effort" had been made to confirm that the court documents referred to the same person, having cross-checked details such as dates of birth.

The panel concluded that Mr Brathwaite sometimes allowed his name to be recorded with an extra ‘I’ (Braithwaite) in the form of an alias.

While applying for the job at Sydney Russell School, Mr Brathwaite ticked a box which stated he had been convicted of one or more criminal offences and wrote down that he had been convicted twice in 2006 and once in 2009.

The convictions he listed were: driving without a licence and insurance (2006), battery (2006) and selling items and making a gain without a licence (2009). Witness A had asked Mr Brathwaite to provide a supplementary document with further details on his past convictions.

Mr Brathwaite later wrote down that the first conviction happened on March 29, 2006, while he said the second was on April 19, 2007 and the third took place on May 21, 2009.

Mr Brathwaite listed "possess criminal property, driving without licence, driving without insurance" as the offences under his first conviction, however the panel later found that he "entirely omitted" the conviction for possession of criminal property on his application form.

Detailing his second conviction which was for battery, Mr Brathwaite said he "had a fight on 19th April with someone who had crashed into my car at the petrol station. Police was [sic] called and I was arrested".

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The panel looked at the details for the sentencing, and Mr Brathwaite was required to pay £50 in compensation to a police officer.

A presenting officer said, as the police officer was the only one Mr Brathwaite had to pay compensation to, the panel could only conclude that the police officer was in fact the victim of the battery and not the person who had allegedly crashed into Mr Brathwaite’s car.

The panel said while the details provided by Mr Brathwaite for this conviction were not inaccurate, they were instead "misleading" because his description of what happened did not lead to the conclusion that the police officer was the victim of the crime – which they said appeared to be the case on the balance of probabilities.

When providing details on his third conviction, Mr Brathwaite said he was part of a sales team that went door-to-door, making sales for cash and said he was convicted because he didn’t have a licence or ID badge and was using a sales name and a sales pitch which was untrue and misleading.

Mr Brathwaite had actually pleaded guilty to fraud and dishonestly made a false representation at Marks and Spencer on Oxford Street for using a cloned credit card and intended to make a gain for himself by buying two laptops which together cost £1,622.68.

A presenting officer said Mr Brathwaite had failed to use the word fraud when he provided details and said this was misleading because it gave the impression that the conviction was of a lesser nature and was not as serious as it was.

The panel said Mr Brathwaite provided "an entirely different and false representation" on his supplementary document and said this was both inaccurate and misleading.

While working at the school, the panel heard how Mr Brathwaite also had sex in or around November 2016 with a staff member in a classroom.

The panel had access to a police interview and court transcripts in which Mr Brathwaite fully accepted on multiple occasions that he and another staff member, known only as Colleague A, had sex in his classroom at the school. A witness called Witness A said she had "no doubts’" that Mr Brathwaite and Colleague A had sex in the classroom as they had both independently told her that it had happened.

The panel accepted that Mr Brathwaite thought pupils had left the school premises at the time he had sex with Colleague A, however he knew the classroom door did not lock, which led to the panel concluding there was a "real risk" that anyone on the school premises could have walked in.

The panel said Mr Brathwaite did not show respect for the rights of others in his failing to accurately inform the school on his convictions and also engaging in sexual activity on the school premises.

It concluded that Mr Brathwaite had acted inconsistently with regard to the ethos, policies and practices of the school and failed to provide the school with "full and frank" information about his convictions.

Mr Brathwaite’s conduct amounted to misconduct of a serious nature which fell "significantly short" of the standards expected for the profession, the panel concluded.

The panel said this was a case involving serious dishonesty and sexual activity, and it had "serious concerns" about the risk to pupils and other members of the public if he continued in the teaching profession.

It noted Mr Brathwaite had received multiple convictions for a variety of behaviours which had escalated over time.

The report said: “The most serious of these convictions was for a sexual assault which took place while Mr Brathwaite was employed as a teacher, albeit not during the actual course of teaching.

“The panel concluded that public confidence in the professional would be affected by the knowledge that an individual with an escalating history of serious criminal activity was teaching children.”

The professional conduct panel concluded that a review period for Mr Brathwaite would not be appropriate and recommended a prohibition order without provisions for a review period.

A report detailing the hearing and the decision was published online earlier this month.

Sarah Buxcey, who was acting on behalf of the Secretary of State for Education, decided to prohibit Mr Brathwaite from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England.

Ms Buxcey said due to the seriousness of the allegations which were found proven against him, Mr Brathwaite is not entitled to apply for restoration of his eligibility to teach.

He does however, have a right of appeal to the King’s Bench Division of the High Court within 28 days from the date he was informed on the decision. Sydney Russell School did not provide a comment at the time of publication.