Ex-physics teacher, 33, is sacked from £32,000-a-year boarding school over secret sex acts with underage pupil during after-hours tuition in common room
- Robbie Brittain said to have touched the girl’s private parts and she touched him
- Brittain cleared over sexual offences in court, but struck off by teacher’s panel
- Alleged incidents took place at Langley School in Norfolk between 2013-2014
- Brittain, who was engaged at time of allegations, maintains his innocence
Robbie Brittain, 33, was said to have used a coat to cover himself and a student to conceal their public sex acts at Langley School in Norfolk. Pictured: Leaving court in 2015
A former physics teacher who worked at a £32,000-a-year boarding school has been struck off from his job for alleged sex acts with an underage schoolgirl.
Robbie Brittain, 33, was said to have used a coat to cover himself and a student to conceal their public sex acts at Langley School in Norfolk, a misconduct hearing was told.
Despite being cleared over child sex offences in court, Brittain was banned from teaching after a disciplinary panel found the claims proven ‘on the balance of probabilities’.
The Teaching Regulation Agency also heard how Brittain had sexual encounters with the girl after giving her after-hours tuition in the school’s communal rooms between 2013 and 2014.
The hearing in Coventry heard Brittain, who was engaged at the time, touched her inappropriately. He denies the allegations made by the girl, known only as Pupil A.
Panel chair Anthony Greenwood said: ‘Pupil A states that within a few weeks of the tuition starting, Mr Brittain engaged in sexual touching with her.
‘She states that Mr Brittain would place a coat over both of them which was also used as a makeshift table, but which also served the purpose of concealing this mutual touching.’
Authorities were first alerted to the alleged sex encounters after the girl told a friend on a school trip in April 2014 after being warned about not smoking. Friends at the school then told staff, which eventually led to Brittain being charged with engaging in sexual activity with a girl under 16.
He was cleared at a trial in 2016 after insisting the student was ‘prone to lying and exaggerating’. He claimed the coat was used a makeshift table. Yet the teacher disciplinary panel ruled it could ‘detect no motivation’ by the student to ‘fabricate allegations’.
The hearing heard how the girl had written poetry about her teacher, including a poem directed at Brittain’s fiancee called: ‘Why do you want me when you have her?’
She claimed that the teacher had warned her that he would be ‘screwed’ if she told anyone about their exploits.
The alleged sexual incidents took place at the £32,000-a-year Langley School in Norfolk
The hearing found allegations of sexually motivated misconduct against Brittain proven. He has been banned from the profession indefinitely.
Mr Greenwood added: ‘The panel is of the view that the account given by Pupil A was entirely convincing and has the ring of truth to it.
‘Her account was both compelling and credible, and for that reason it prefers her account to that of Mr Brittain.’
Mr Greenwood added: ‘The panel is of the view that there is a risk of the conduct in question being repeated and pupils being exposed to a risk of harm.’
‘The findings of misconduct are serious and the conduct displayed would likely have a negative impact on the individual’s status as a teacher, potentially damaging the public perception.
‘In my view, it is necessary to impose a prohibition order in order to maintain public confidence in the profession.’
Brittain, formerly of Wymondham, Norfolk, left Langley School in February 2016 after signing a settlement agreement.
Fees at the elite school range from £16,000 per school year for day pupils and £32,000 for boarders.
A spokesman for Langley said Brittain was suspended as soon as the allegations came to light.
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