A humanities teacher who was arrested after sending sexual messages to a 13-year-old girl has been banned from teaching “indefinitely”.
Liam Walker, 31, a teacher at Sir William Stanier School in Crewe, Cheshire, from 2023 to 2024, used Snapchat and another online chatroom where he used usernames including “HungTeacherMeet” and “Fit Teacher” to speak to the child.
Walker, who was in correspondence online with the child for a week, asked her “intrusive questions about her sexual history and made other sexualised remarks”, according to allegations upheld by a Teaching Regulation Agency panel.
According to the evidence, the girl, identified in the documents as “Child A”, informed Walker, “during their first online interaction” on 7 August that she was 13.
Despite this, Walker continued to engage in online correspondence with her until 15 August.
“In many of the messages sent by Mr Walker to Child A he asked Child A intrusive questions about her sexual history and made other sexualised remarks,” the panel heard.
These included comments such as: “you never know what creeps are out there trying to get into your pants”, “are you a virgin?”, “you’re defo gonna get someone in trouble haha hope you don’t send nudes”, “are you looking for sex?”, and “I’m always a little worried to talk dirty to a teen as it’s illegal haha”.
On 4 September 2024, Walker was arrested for engaging in sexual communications with a child, and five days later he was dismissed from his role with immediate effect.
The panel noted that Walker’s behaviour “took place in the summer holidays outside of the education setting”, but said he “had failed in his duty of care to children by exposing Child A to the risk of being groomed” and of failing to promote her safety and welfare.
The panel also said Walker “appeared to be testing the boundaries with Child A”. They said “this conduct was exacerbated by his use of the usernames ‘HungTeacherMeet’ and ‘FitTeacher’ which were both capable of having sexual connotations”.
They said his actions amounted to “serious departure from the personal and professional conduct elements of the Teachers’ Standards”, as well as “sexual misconduct … involving actions that were sexually motivated or of a sexual nature and/or that use or exploit the trust, knowledge or influence derived from the individual’s professional position”.
The panel said the public interest considerations, the protracted nature of the communication with Child A and the intrusive and explicit nature of the conversation with her was a “significant factor” in recommending a prohibition order be imposed with immediate effect.
Assessing the panel’s recommendations, Stuart Blomfield, acting on behalf of the Secretary of State for Education, said: “The findings of misconduct are serious,” adding that “the panel has found all of the allegations proven and found that those proven facts amount to unacceptable professional conduct and conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute.”
He added: “In my view, it is necessary to impose a prohibition order in order to maintain public confidence in the profession.”
