A TEACHER who sent inappropriate text messages to a teenage pupil has been banned from the classroom.

Darren Cox, a former ICT teacher at Richmond School, exchanged a series of text messages with the girl, who was aged over 16, between the summer of 2013 and December 2014.

The messages he sent the girl were flirtatious, and were sent from his personal mobile phone, a teacher misconduct panel of the National College for Teaching and Leadership heard.

The hearing took place in Coventry on June 9 and 10, and was not attended by Mr Cox, 43, who was found to have failed to maintain proper professional boundaries in his position of trust, and that he had failed to report to a safeguarding team that the girl had a crush on him.

The panel heard Mr Cox had given the girl his private mobile number, which he admitted, but there were discrepancies in his account for why it occurred.

At one point during the school’s disciplinary hearing Mr Cox said it was during a sixth form work experience programme, and on another occasion he said it was when he gave her a lift in his car.

The former pupil, who gave evidence at the hearing, said he had felt confused about Mr Cox’s feelings towards her during their text exchanges.

Comments made by Mr Cox in text messages included Mr Cox telling the pupil he had been in the bath; that she looked "hot" in a dress; and another where he seems to admit she was a bad influence on him.

The hearing heard there had been a “significant number of messages between September and December 2014.”

However, in September 2013, the pupil’s mother had attended school to inform Mr Cox she had concerns her daughter had feelings for him

The messages had apparently stopped for some months, but started up again some months later until a friend of the girl reported the messages to another member of staff.

In a letter to the panel, Mr Cox said: “I seek forgiveness and closure to this matter. I will not even try to justify my actions other than to say the following. I was stupid, crossed a line and did not think to act when I should have.

“ I should not have engaged in childish banter with a sixth form student and should have stepped back and dealt with the situation in a professional way.”

In evidence, both the pupil and Richmond School headteacher Ian Robertson said Mr Cox was a good teacher.

Mr Robertson said he had been recognised at a regional level for his great strengths as an ICT teacher.

The panel concluded that Mr Cox, who was not at the hearing, was guilty of unacceptable professional conduct and that the teacher’s actions constituted conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute.

Members recommended that the teacher should be banned from teaching, which can be reviewed after two years.

“We welcome this ruling from the National College,” said Ian Robertson, Richmond School’s headteacher. “We expect nothing less than the highest professional standards from our teachers and will not tolerate any behaviour from our staff that compromises the safeguarding and protection of our young people.

“As soon as we had evidence of child protection issues regarding this teacher, the school, with the support of the county council, took immediate action to investigate every aspect of this case. “