Dagenham teacher ‘didn’t report child sexual abuse video’ sent to him on Facebook

Dagenham: A teacher named Vevekanand Singh has been banned from teaching after he didn’t report a disturbing child abuse video sent to him on Facebook. This incident happened back in April 2019, and it’s pretty shocking.

Singh, who was working at Hunters Hall Primary School, got arrested in December 2019 for having an indecent image. Although the police didn’t take further action, the Teaching Regulation Authority got involved later.

During an investigation, Singh admitted that not reporting the video was a huge mistake. He said it was his “deepest regret” not to inform the right people. The video he received was classified as Category A, which is the worst kind of child abuse image.

In a written statement, Singh claimed he deleted all messages with the sender, thinking Facebook and the police would handle it. He also mentioned he was shocked when he received the video, which he described as poor quality and old.

He tried to send the video back to the sender, thinking that would get rid of it. But the panel didn’t buy that excuse, saying it was unreasonable to think the image would just disappear like that.

A witness even said she saw messages showing Singh had sent the video back to the sender, which he denied. He claimed he would never use such language and insisted he only made a comment about the child being harmed.

Singh didn’t show up for the hearing, so the panel treated the allegations as proven. They found his actions amounted to serious misconduct, leading to a prohibition order that bans him from teaching for now.

He argued that he wasn’t prepared for such a situation and claimed he never received training on how to handle it. However, the panel noted that the school had provided safeguarding training.

Because of the serious nature of the allegations, Singh will be banned for five years unless the order is overturned in a review.