A teacher and father of two has been barred from teaching for the rest of his life after repeatedly sexually assaulting an adolescent girl while working at a primary school.
Andrew Oldfield was sentenced to four years in jail in 2020 after being convicted of four charges of sexual behavior with a juvenile.
From 2018 to 2019, the 35-year-old taught at Horn’s Mill Primary School in Helsby, Frodsham, near outside Chester.
He had sexual intercourse with his victim, a female between the ages of 13 and 17, on several occasions while at school. Horn’s Mill School was not attended by the girl.
Oldfield messaged the girl about the sordid abuse and his plans to do it again on WhatsApp.
He was caught out after his victim’s mother found messages from Oldfield on the lockscreen of her daughter’s phone, where he was urging the girl to delete his messages.
David Watson, prosecuting at Liverpool Crown Court on 23 October 2020, said the woman confronted Oldfield, who at first told an elaborate lie in an attempt to fool her.
Mr Watson said the mother wasn’t satisfied and managed to access her daughter’s phone by guessing the PIN.
He said she was so concerned by the ‘intimate’ messages she read that she woke up her sleeping daughter and questioned her about them.
The girl became very upset and, while maintaining that nothing had happened, asked her mother to promise that she wouldn’t call the police.
However, the woman later challenged Oldfield, who initially said his behaviour may have gone ‘over the line’, but denied any sexual activity.
He attended Widnes police station the following day, when he confessed that he had been kissing, cuddling and touching the child, but denied having sexual intercourse with her.
Oldfield later confessed to having sexual intercourse with the child. The court heard that Oldfield took the girl’s virginity and didn’t use a condom.
Mr Watson added that the girl sometimes felt ’empty and numb’ since the abuse.
Oldfield, formerly from Widnes, has now been banned from ever teaching children in any setting ever again.
He has also been denied the right to appeal against the ruling, made jointly by the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) and the office of the Secretary of State for Education, Nadhim Zahawi.
The TRA board said of the abuse: ‘Mr Oldfield’s conduct was of the utmost seriousness and completely incompatible with the standards and behaviour expected of any member of the public, let alone a teacher who is placed in the position of trust with children.’
Mr Alan Meyrick, acting on behalf of the Secretary of State, said: ‘Mr Andrew Oldfield is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England.
‘Furthermore, in view of the seriousness of the allegations found proved against him, I have decided that Mr Andrew Oldfield shall not be entitled to apply for restoration of his eligibility to teach.’