Description
A former Liverpool primary school teacher has been banned from the classroom for life after being convicted of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child.
Prior to being caught up in a police sting, Alan Harbottle spent 12 years working at Mosspits Lane Primary School in Wavertree.
The 52-year-old will now never set foot in a school again after a teacher regulation agency panel felt his conviction was so severe he may not be allowed to work with young people for the rest of his life. Documents released from a hearing held in private have revealed how the former PSHE lead was caught by officers pretending to be a 14-year-old boy online.
Harbottle, who taught at Mosspits from September 2011, was arrested on suspicion of sexual communication with a child in May 2023. He appeared in court a month later and was subsequently suspended by the school.
Following a disciplinary hearing held in September 2023, Harbottle - who had led the school’s drama club, was dismissed. On June 1, 2023, he appeared at Southend on Sea Magistrates Court and was convicted of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and attempting to meet a child under 16 after grooming them online.
The ex-teacher admitted that he had been contacted by Essex Police following a police sting operation whereby Harbottle communicated with officers posing as a 14-year-old boy. He admitted that this had involved the exchange of sexualised nude images and discussion of sexual acts.
Harbottle also admitted that he organised a meeting with the boy as he believed. He was subsequently sentenced to 10 months’ imprisonment suspended for 24 months, ordered to participate in a sexual offender programme for 30 days, undertake a rehabilitation activity requirement for 25 days and was barred from working with children.
The former teacher was also given a sexual harm prevention order for a decade. The court was told how in May 2023, Harbottle began speaking to someone on a legal dating app with someone he believed to be over 18.
The person was in fact a decoy police officer, who purported to be 14. The documents set out how sexualised photographs were exchanged at Harbottle’s behest and the conversation led swiftly to discussions about “specific and highly intimate sexual behaviour.”
The judge said: “It’s clear that you knew what you were doing, you made that obvious by the sense of some form of self-awareness during the course of those exchanges, and obviously that what you were doing was wholly wrong…” The Judge added how “nonetheless, you persisted, and so it was that you went to meet, what you believed to be, a 14-year-old boy… It must have been in your head, that there was a possibility you might have sexual activity with him…”
The court was told how Harbottle had written a letter in which he had “expressed, unusually but perceptively, [his] own relief at being caught”. The Judge said that it seemed to him that Harbottle had had time to reflect and to “appreciate that the actions of the police in trapping [him]… has perhaps saved you and indeed some other young person, from the reality of what this criminal offence would otherwise mean.”
It was accepted Harbottle had expressed genuine remorse and nothing else was discovered that suggested the former teacher was predatory in any other way. He was given full credit for his guilty pleas and was said to have a significant prospect of rehabilitation.
However, this was not enough for the Teacher Regulation Agency to permit him to return to the classroom. A three person panel found he had acted deliberately and he had fully expected to be suspended from the profession as a result.
The seriousness of the offending meant a lifetime ban was imposed on Harbottle. This means he is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England.
He will not be permitted to apply to have his eligibility restored.