July 2011 Ban for ex-head on sex register A FORMER primary school headteacher, convicted 30 years after committing multiple counts of indecent assault on a young girl when he was aged between 12 and 15, has been banned from the classroom. Anthony Talbot, who was headteacher at Colebrook Junior School, pleaded guilty at Cardiff Crown Court last year to eight counts of indecent assault on a female under 14 and four counts of gross indecency with a girl under 16. All of the offences were carried out between 1976 and 1980. On June 25 last year, Talbot was given a three-year rehabilitation order with a three-year supervision requirement and made to register as a sex offender for five years. Now the General Teaching Council (GTC) has issued a Prohibition Order banning him from teaching. The GTC disciplinary committee findings said: “Although the offences were committed prior to Mr Talbot becoming a registered teacher, the conviction for these offences was in June 2010 when he was a registered teacher and employed as headteacher in a primary school. “The conviction was for offences which are materially relevant to fitness to be a registered teacher. In making this finding, we have been cognisant of the need to maintain public confidence in the teaching profession.” The committee took into account that the sentencing judge decided it was unnecessary and inappropriate to make an order disqualifying Mr Talbot from working with children. However, it found that it would be inappropriate to make an order that would permit Mr Talbot to return to teaching without the GTC being able to assess the impact of the programme of rehabilitation or whilst his name remains on the sex offenders register. Imposing a Prohibition Order, Committee chairman Alison Fisher said: “This means that Mr Talbot is struck off the Teaching Register indefinitely and cannot teach in maintained schools or non-maintained special schools. “He may apply for permission to re-register, but not before September 1, 2015 at the earliest. If he does apply, a panel will meet to consider whether his eligibility to register, and therefore to teach, should be restored. “Without a successful application, Mr Talbot remains barred from teaching indefinitely.”