LONDON — A female teacher who bombarded an underage schoolgirl with sexual messages has been struck off for life.
Food technology teacher Miss Lianne Barclay, 43, told the teen that she “can’t wait for a cuddle” and that “you’re mine.”
The teacher asked the child if she was ‘gay yet?’ and told her that she ‘like[s] younger ones’ because they have ‘more stamina’.
Miss Barclay taught at Bridgewater High School, Warrington, from September 2017 when she contacted the girl, who was not a pupil at school.
Towards the end of the summer term in July 2019, a parent of the girl, referred to only as Child A, contacted a colleague of Miss Barclay to raise concerns about inappropriate videos and messages between shared between the two.
The child’s mother provided examples of the inappropriate messages on a memory stick, with the matter reported to the police.
Both the child and Miss Barclay were interviewed by police, but the force decided not to take any further action.
Miss Barclay resigned in August 2019 but the school’s investigation continued and a safeguard referral was made to the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) in December 2020.
Child A asked Miss Barclay ‘how long ago did you come out?’ with Miss Barclay replying immediately, saying ‘I was horny’, ‘small town’.
She also sent the child a voice message telling her not to ‘get them red bed sheets’ because ‘you know that your girlfriend’s favourite colour is blue’.
‘I am a mother f*****g princess don’t you dare call me a d******d you get those sheets that I want or you ain’t sleeping in bed with me tonight b***h,’ she added.
While other messages read ‘I like sex’, ‘I’m coming I’m coming’, ‘f**k yes f**k yes’ and ‘I scream’.
Child A responded: ‘In your case book myself a bloody air bnb cause you’d go all night’.
Miss Barclay replied saying ‘my neighbours hate me’ and ‘I do’, ‘All night’, ‘when I’m this horny’.
The panel also noted that Miss Barclay forwarded a photograph to the child of a woman’s breast partially covered by a hand.
Child A said that Miss Barclay “would phone me every day” and that she would “phone me all during the school time.”
By the end of April 2019, Child A said they were speaking to each other every day.
The teacher said that ‘this situation has put enormous stress, which has been exacerbated by the time scale it has taken for any action to be made and the prejudice I feel I have suffered in relation to my sexuality’.
She apologised to the family of Child A and anyone else who had been hurt, adding: ‘I am truly sorry.’
‘The child was not my student. In my professional capacity as a teacher, she was not my student. It’s unrealistic to expect teachers to be teachers 24/7,’ she said.
She added that she developed a friendship with Child A and since she was not her student, she did not link her role as a teacher to their conversations.
Mrs Patricia Hunt, who chaired the TRA hearing, said: ‘In light of this the panel considered that it was more likely than not that the messages were the stepping stones on the way to a sexual relationship, as least from the perspective of Miss Barclay.
‘Miss Barclay significantly breached the trust placed in her and she acted in a manner that manipulated Child A, causing a considerable adverse impact to her welfare and her academic studies.’
Following the hearing, she was found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct.
Banning her for life, Mark Cavey, for the Education Secretary, said: “The panel finds that the conduct of Miss Barclay fell significantly short of the standards expected of the profession.”
“The findings of misconduct are particularly serious as they include a teacher failing to maintain appropriate boundaries with, and engaging in sexually motivated behavior towards, a child.”
By ROBERT FOLKER and MARK BRANAGAN/Daily Mail
