Locations
Locks Heath, Southampton, SO31
Description
A former Eton College master who had 4,500 indecent images of pupils on his computer has been banned from the classroom for life.
Matthew Mowbray admitted his behaviour is an open and shut case and agreed he should never teach again.
He was jailed for five years in December 2020 after a jury found him guilty of a string of sexual offences at the prestigious 48,501-per-year school in Berkshire.
Reading Crown Court heard how the former geography teacher made nocturnal visits to students in their rooms on the pretext of helping with their work, before touching them for his own sexual gratification.
Mowbray also ran a photography club where he took pictures of pupils and later superimposed their faces onto the naked bodies of unknown children.
It was also found he covertly filmed a boy dressing in the privacy of his room.
Now aged 50, Mowbray was today struck off for life by the teaching watchdog, who were concerned there was a considerable risk of the repetition of his behaviour.
Given that I have been sent to prison, this is an open and shut case, he said. I should not teach again.
The Teaching Regulation Agency panel heard Mowbray taught geography at Eton from 1993 to 2020, and was a housemaster from 2010 until his arrest in 2017.
His sex offences involved four boys between 2012 and 2019.
Ms Jo Palmer-Tweed, who chaired the hearing, said: The panel noted that the behaviour involved in committing the offences had significant effects on the pupils.
They were described by the judge as lasting, including depression, anxiety, stress, nervousness, loss of confidence, embarrassment, physical and psychological and sadness.
The panel considered that public confidence in the profession would be seriously weakened if conduct such as that found against Mowbray were not treated with the utmost seriousness when regulating the conduct of the profession.
There was no evidence that Mowbray was acting under duress. His actions were deliberate.
Having previously had a spotless record, Mowbray was convicted of eight counts of sexual activity with a child and one count of voyeurism.
On top of his five-year sentence, he was also made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years and will remain on the sex offenders register for life.