January 2017 British headteacher who paid to live stream footage of child abuse in the Philippines is banned for life A headteacher at a primary school who paid to live stream children being abused in the Philippines has been banned from the classroom for life. Paedophile Paul McNeil paid a Filipino contact to orchestrate the child sex abuse and broadcast it live over the internet after meeting him on a gay chat site. The 53-year-old also used Skype to role play a father who messaged the person on the other end pretending to be his 15-year-old son. He sent messages that included, “Why don’t you get naked while [you] massage me” and, “[You are] hot, let’s do this for real, you have [a webcam]?” The head of Hartley Primary School in East Ham, London, came to the attention of Scotland Yard after a tip off from their Canadian counterparts. They said McNeil had ordered 19 DVDs containing indecent images of children between September 2008 and December 2009 from a Canadian company called Azov Films. When detectives raided his east London home in May 2014 they did not find the ordered DVDs but a search of his computer revealed he had used two different credit cards after developing a relationship with the Filipino contact through chat sites. They also found images of school-children on six camcorder tapes, 19 DVDs, 21 VHS tapes and more than 1,000 images on his computer. It was ruled that McNeil can never work with children ever again but the teaching disciplinary panel said McNeil did not dispute that he had the items. They said: “It is not alleged that any of these items contained any indecent images. Mr McNeil’s position is that these were photographs taken in the course of ordinary school business.” Panel chair Alison Walsh, of the National College for Teaching and Leadership, said: “Mr McNeil was identified as making two payments to a Filipino suspect believed to orchestrate live on-line child sex abuse. “Mr McNeil was interviewed by the police on 19 May 2014 and again on 9 October. Throughout both interviews, Mr McNeil exercised his right of silence. “No criminal charges were brought against Mr McNeil.” She added: “The panel is satisfied that it is more likely than not that Mr McNeil transferred money believing that in return he would have the opportunity to view sexual activity involving a child or children via the internet and/or to view indecent or inappropriate images of children. “The panel notes that the allegations took place outside of the education setting. However, as a teacher, indeed a headteacher, the responsibility for safeguarding the interests and well-being of all children is paramount. “His actions were fundamentally incompatible with this expectation of professionals working with children.” Ruling he should be banned for life with no appeal to be reinstated Ms Walsh added: “These behaviours include serious sexual misconduct and activity connected with the viewing, taking, making, possessing, distributing or publishing of any indecent photograph or image or pseudo photograph or image of a child. “Mr McNeil has demonstrated limited insight into the consequences of his actions.”