ALAN HARBOTTLE BANNED FOR LIFE FROM LIVERPOOL SCHOOLS AFTER SEXUAL COMMUNICATION WITH CHILD

A former primary school teacher from Liverpool has been permanently prohibited from working with children following a conviction related to attempting to engage in sexual communication with a minor. The individual, Alan Harbottle, who previously served at Mosspits Lane Primary School in Wavertree, has faced severe disciplinary action after his conviction was deemed so serious that a teacher regulation panel decided he should never return to the classroom.

Details emerging from a private hearing reveal that Harbottle, who was the lead for Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PSHE) at the school, was caught in a police sting operation. Officers posed online as a 14-year-old boy, and it was during this operation that Harbottle was discovered attempting to communicate sexually with the decoy. The incident took place in May 2023, leading to his arrest on suspicion of engaging in sexual communication with a minor.

Following his arrest, Harbottle appeared in court in Southend-on-Sea on June 1, 2023. He was subsequently convicted of attempting to communicate sexually with a child and attempting to meet a minor under the age of 16 after grooming them online. The court proceedings revealed that Harbottle had exchanged explicit nude images and discussed sexual acts with the decoy, believing he was communicating with a real 14-year-old boy.

Harbottle admitted to the police that he had been contacted by officers posing as a minor and that he had exchanged sexualised images and engaged in explicit discussions. He also confessed to organizing a meeting with the supposed minor, believing it to be genuine. As a result of his actions, he was sentenced to 10 months in prison, suspended for 24 months. Additionally, he was ordered to participate in a 30-day sexual offender rehabilitation program, complete a 25-day activity requirement, and was explicitly barred from working with children.

Furthermore, the court imposed a sexual harm prevention order lasting ten years. The court documents also detailed how, in May 2023, Harbottle initiated contact with someone on a legal dating app, believing the individual to be over 18. In reality, the person was a police decoy posing as a 14-year-old. During this interaction, sexualised photographs were exchanged at Harbottle’s behest, and the conversation quickly escalated to discussions of highly intimate sexual behaviour.

The judge overseeing the case emphasized the gravity of Harbottle’s conduct, stating, “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… 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.”

Given the seriousness of his offences, a lifetime ban was imposed on Harbottle, preventing him from teaching in any capacity within England. This includes restrictions from working in schools, sixth form colleges, youth accommodation facilities, or children’s homes. The ban is indefinite, and he is not eligible to apply for reinstatement or to have his teaching credentials restored in the future.