A FORMER teacher who had sexual images of children has been struck off.
Richard Leighfield, who previously taught at Northwick Manor Primary School, was banned from the profession more than a year after he was jailed for a series of sexual offences against children.
He was dismissed from his job as a year 5 teacher in December 2024 after his arrest.
He had been caught having sexual conversations with two girls aged 12 and 13, who were actually decoy police officers.
Leighfield, of Threshfield Drive, Warndon Villages, had tried to teach the 13 year-old to masturbate and share a video with her friends and had sent a photo of his genitals to the 12 year-old.
READ MORE: Ex-Northwick Manor teacher Leighfield jailed over sex chats with girls
Multiple sexual images of children were then found at his home, with some containing children as young as five years old.
In January 2025, he was sentenced to 30 months in prison, handed a sexual harm prevention order and ordered to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register. An order was also handed down for the deprivation and destruction of his phone.
During sentencing, Judge Cartwright said Leighfield’s search history had played into “fantasies of some kind with students”.
Earlier this month, the Teaching Regulation Agency held a panel meeting in private to discuss the former teacher’s conduct and has now published a report of its findings.
Leighfield did not attend the meeting, instead supplying a signed statement admitting to his convictions.
In the report, it said that he had been a teacher since 1994 and had been employed at Northwick Manor Primary School since 2012.
The panel said there was no evidence that the victims were children he had taught but said that downloading images meant he was supporting an industry that exploits children.
The report states: “The origin of the indecent images was unknown to the panel.
“If they were images of someone known to Mr Leighfield, his possession of them would be likely to cause them distress.
“If they were images available online, his downloading of them would support an industry that exploits children, impacting on their safety and security.”
The panel also found that Leighfield’s had “fundamentally breached the standard of conduct expected of a teacher”.
The report said that he had not provided any evidence of rehabilitation, leaving them concerned that his behaviour would be repeated.
Leighfield has been handed a prohibition order, banning him from teaching indefinitely.