Featured Image Credit: Deadline News
Topics: UK News
Claire Reid
Topics: UK News
A teacher who admitted to having a sexual relationship with a pupil says he is still fit to teach.
Ross Spittal used to work at Inveralmond Community High School in West Lothian admitted to having sex at least twice with the pupil, who is believed to have been 18 at the time.
Police found no criminal wrongdoing over the relationship, but Spittal now faces a tribunal to decide if he is fit to continue working as a teacher.
The relationship, which started in 2019, was discovered by Spittal’s then-girlfriend who found more than 800 emails between the teacher and the pupil, who is referred to as Pupil A at a hearing in front of the General Teaching Council for Scotland.
His ex-partner told the tribunal: “I was aware of Pupil A for years. It was a running joke in the school that she fancied Ross.
“It was surprising for pupils to have a crush on him, but I didn’t think he would act on it.
“I saw that he was searching for Pupil A on Facebook.
“He said he was feeling low about teaching and he was looking for nice messages pupils wrote about him on Facebook.
“He was messaging the pupil using Glow [a portal where teachers and pupils can communicate] at late times. The chat and banter you’d expect with a friend."
She added: "One Saturday night at about 2am, me and Ross were sitting in drinking and he kept looking at his phone. He was messaging Pupil A on Glow. I thought it was extremely odd behaviour.
“The day I came across the emails on our laptop, a message popped up at the bottom of the screen, she was emailing him.
“When I opened the conversation it was happening there and then, they were planning on meeting up.
"On 22 May 2019 I discussed a number of emails between him and Pupil A. I found 800 emails between the two dating back to early 2019. There were naked pictures of Pupil A.
“I was literally seeing naked photos of her as I was speaking to him on the phone. He asked me not to tell the police or the school.”
Spittal's legal representative Claire Raftery said he admits all allegations brought to him by the GTCS.
He admitted kissing the sixth year pupil after an Easter school session in April 2019 and to having sexual relations with the same girl at his home in April 2019.
In May 2019, Spittal told the school's head teacher that there was ‘nothing going on at all’ between himself and the pupil. Today, he admitted to being dishonest about the relationship.
The hearing, which is still ongoing, will determine whether Spittal can return back to the classroom or not.