EAST LONDON TEACHER BANNED FOR LIFE AFTER LYING ABOUT CRIMINAL PAST

A teacher at an east London school has been banned from the profession for life for misleading a school about details of his past convictions, including battery and fraud.

Robert Brathwaite, who was hired by Sydney Russell School in Dagenham in 2016, went on to commit sexual assault and have sex with a teaching assistant in an unlocked classroom, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service. A professional conduct panel heard that the school was aware of many of his convictions, but Brathwaite intentionally provided false information about some of them during his application.

The court certificates for his convictions include driving without a license or insurance and possession of criminal property in 2005, battery in 2007, and fraud in 2009. It was also revealed that he was convicted in 2019 of sexual assault against a female aged 13 or over by penetration.

Further allegations include having sex with a colleague in school in front of others, with the classroom door not being locked, and misleading information about his convictions, which he exaggerated or omitted. Brathwaite's conduct was found to be of a serious nature that seriously undermines public confidence in teachers.

The panel concluded that Brathwaite’s history involved an escalation of criminal activities, including an incident involving a cloned credit card used to buy expensive laptops in 2009. Court transcripts and police interviews confirmed he fully admitted to having sex in his classroom with another staff member, identified only as Colleague A. His misconduct fell “significantly short” of professional standards, and the panel stated that knowledge of such a background could undermine public trust in the profession.