VEVEKANAND SINGH'S SHOCKING CRIME IN DAGENHAM: TEACHER BANNED AFTER CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE VIDEO INCIDENT

A former educator at a primary school in Dagenham has faced a permanent ban from the teaching profession following a disturbing incident involving a video depicting child sexual abuse. Vevekanand Singh, aged 50, who was employed at Hunters Hall Primary School, was arrested on New Year’s Eve in 2019 on suspicion of possessing an indecent image of a child. The investigation revealed that eight months prior to his arrest, Singh received a distressing video via social media from a friend in his home country of Guyana. The video showed a child being subjected to sexual abuse, a fact that Singh acknowledged by commenting, "this look like one little child." Despite recognizing the disturbing nature of the content, Singh failed to report the incident to the police, his school authorities, or the social media platform through which he received the video.

Following his arrest, Essex Police conducted an interview with Singh. In April 2020, after reviewing the case, the police decided that no further action was necessary, and Singh continued his duties at Hunters Hall Primary School until October of that year. The matter, however, did not end there. On December 19, a misconduct panel convened by the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) concluded that Singh’s failure to report the incident warranted an indefinite ban from teaching. Singh did not attend the misconduct hearing, but during his police interview, he claimed to be "extremely shocked and confused" upon receiving the video. He stated that the video was unsolicited and that his initial reaction was to delete it by resending it to the sender, believing this would remove the content from his device. The misconduct panel, however, dismissed his explanation, emphasizing that such an act would not delete the image and that Singh had a clear duty to report the matter.

Singh admitted that he should have informed his school's safeguarding lead and the police about the video. He described his decision not to report the incident as "a bad decision and a bad misjudgement." He also explained that the messages had disappeared from his device, leading him to believe that authorities were already aware and handling the situation. The decision-maker, David Oakley, highlighted that although the incident took place outside the school environment and no pupils were directly harmed, Singh’s failure to act was significant. He had multiple opportunities over the eight months before police intervention to report his concerns but chose not to do so.

Prior to this incident, Singh had maintained an unblemished record in his teaching career. Nonetheless, the misconduct panel’s ruling resulted in an indefinite ban from the profession. Singh now has the option to apply for the ban to be lifted after five years, but for the time being, he is prohibited from working as a teacher in the UK.