Teacher who worked as stripper, ran porn website faces ban from classroom

Teacher who worked as stripper, ran porn website faces ban from classroom

A sex education teacher led a double life as a porn star and stripper while employed at a secondary school, a tribunal has heard.

Benedict Garrett, 31, is accused of raking in cash under the alias ‘Johnny Anglais’.

He also owned a website containing details of his work as a stripper, which could be freely viewed by pupils, a disciplinary hearing was told.

On the site, the former teacher who continues to work as a stripper, could be seen scantily clad and dressed as a fireman.

Alongside the pictures, he claims to be 'a man with a mission' - to 'unashamedly demonstrate the art of pleasure in the realms of fitness, sex and entertainment.'

He also describes how he has taught 'young people to be open-minded, respectful, tolerant of others' for the past four years.

The General Teaching Council panel in Birmingham heard how Mr Garrett 'undertook work of a pornographic nature' and 'performed as a stripper in public place' while employed by at Beal High School, in Ilford, Essex, between January 1 2008 and July 16 2010.

The tribunal was told how the former head of Personal, Social, Health and Economic education, also left inappropriate voicemail messages on the associate head teacher's telephone in July last year.

Further allegations centre on text message, email and Facebook communication with Year 10 students which, the committee was told, was inappropriate because it fell 'outside the boundaries of the professional teacher/student relationship.'

Mr Garrett, who represented himself at the hearing, told the panel how he would speak openly with students - some as young as 11 or 12 - about sexual matters.

'I was unembarrassed to talk about anything,' he said. 'I said 'if you ask me in an appropriate manner I will tell you.'

Giving an example of an exchange with a year 7 pupil, he added: 'The student asked 'sir, what's a vibrator?' 'I told them what it was.'

In an impassioned thirty-minute statement in his defence, he argued that teachers should be able to keep their professional and private lives separate.

'It is not going anywhere,' he told the panel. 'Pornography is here to stay, the Internet is here to stay, social networking is here to stay.

'Being told that it's wrong, that it's immoral is not an appropriate response.'

Culled from Daily Mail