A teacher who sent indecent photographs of himself to a pupil under the age of 18 has been banned from teaching. Cornelius Jansen Van Vuuren taught at Barclay Academy in Stevenage, Hertfordshire , between September 2019 and June 2023.

The secondary school discovered he had exchanged inappropriate messages and photographs with a student between the ages of 13 and 17, and dismissed him in June 2023. A police investigation led Van Vuuren to be convicted of causing or inciting sexual activity with a female aged between 13 and 17, involving an abuse of a position of trust.

The ex-teacher pleaded guilty and was sentenced in June 2024 to a six-month custodial sentence, suspended for 24 months. He was also made to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work and handed a seven-year Sexual Harm Preventio

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