A former teaching assistant at Penglais school in Aberystwyth who was cautioned by police for ‘revenge porn’ has been banned from working in education indefinitely.

A fitness to practice committee hearing was held by the Education Workforce Council (EWC) into Aaron Dean Phillips on 3 and 4 September.

The committee heard that Phillips was employed by Ceredigion County Council as a teaching assistant at Ysgol Penglais from September 2021 until his resignation in October 2022.

While employed at Penglais, the committee heard, Phillips accepted a caution from Dyfed-Powys Police on 10 June 2022 for a charge of disclosure/threatening to disclose private sexual photographs and films with intent to cause distress on 2 January 2022.

The relatively new offense was instituted in 2015 as part of ‘revenge porn’ laws.

The hearing heard that EWC received an email from Ceredigion County Council in November 2022 “which raised an alleged safeguarding concern relating to a police investigation.”

The committee hearing heard that Phillips did not inform education authorities about the caution while still employed.

Phillips, the committee heard, claimed he was “falsely coerced” into signing the caution document.

He also claimed that after accepting the caution he did not inform education authorities as “the police officers and solicitors involved in this case told me they would do this on my behalf and I was told strictly not to do this.”

The committee found there was “no supporting evidence to confirm that he was challenging the caution issued” adding that by signing EWC documents when first registering he “explicitly agreed” to abide by rules which included “that registered persons must declare a caution to the EWC in a timely manner.”

“The committee is satisfied that Mr Phillips’ knowledge and belief at the time of the conduct was that such his caution should be disclosed,” a hearing report says.

The committee found that Phillips acted “dishonestly”, “demonstrated a lack of integrity” and that the behaviour “fell short of the standard expected of a registered person and amounts to unacceptable professional conduct.”

“The Committee consider this to be a serious matter,” the hearing report concludes.

“Honesty and integrity are fundamental tenets of the education profession.

“Mr Phillips’ conduct also had the potential to damage the reputation of the school as well as the education profession and amounted to unacceptable professional conduct.”

The hearing took into mitigation that Phillips “had a previous good history and is of previous good character” and that there were “challenging personal and domestic circumstances present at the time of the conduct” but found that his actions “were fundamentally incompatible with continuing to be a registered person” and ruled that “a Prohibition Order should be imposed.”

“The Committee is satisfied that a Prohibition Order is appropriate and necessary in the public interest and will maintain public confidence in the education profession and the regulatory process and uphold proper standards of professional conduct,” the hearing report said.

“This means that Mr Phillips has been prohibited from practising in the education profession in Wales indefinitely.”