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The assistant principal of Archbishop Lanfranc who took innocent photographs of children and turned them into sexual images using photo-manipulation software has been banned from teaching for life.
Stephen Hepworth’s pupils caught him manipulating photographs taken of female pupils from his previous job at Shirley High School. He was “creating a magnified ‘upskirt’ image of the upper thigh and genital area of one of his female former pupils while using a school computer.”
Pupils filmed Hepworth on their mobile phones as he accessed an image of two female former pupils sitting on a table. One of the girls in the image was wearing a skirt that sat high above the knee line, Hepworth then zoomed in on the part of the image that showed the pupil’s upper thigh and genital area. Hepworth sat and cropped and zoomed in on the photo for at least two minutes before staring at it for around another two minutes.
A report published by Teaching Regulation Authority states that the teacher admitted to his actions, but denied they were sexually motivated. The panel refused to accept Hepworth’s claim that he was just acting in a “thoughtless” way while trying out a new piece of software on his computer, however.
The assistant principal was found guilty of professional misconduct and “using a school computer during working hours for actions motivated by the pursuance of sexual gratification.”
Hepworth was subjected to a prohibition order on behalf of the Education Secretary, which bans him from ever teaching in any school, sixth form college, or youth accommodation in England for the rest of his life.