Embarrassed English teacher who was fired for staring at female students’ breasts kept a secret stash of photos of actress Helen Flanagan in his college locker
- John Taylor, 54, sacked for staring at students’ breasts at a university in North Wales
- Photos of actress Helen Flanagan were found in his locker after he was fired
- Taylor had been accused of encroaching on the personal space of female students
An embarrassed English teacher who was fired for staring at the breasts of female students kept a secret stash of photos of actress Helen Flanagan in his college closet.
John Taylor, 54, was fired from Grwp Llandrillo Menai College in North Wales in 2019 after being accused by teenage girls of invading their ‘personal space’ and ‘staring at their tops and cleavage’.
At a disciplinary hearing, it was said that after Taylor was fired, a trove of CDs, DVDs and photos of former Coronation Street star Flanagan were discovered in his locker.
His secret collection was found while the locker was being emptied, along with other photos of Japanese singer Ai Shinozaki who is known for her “shapely figure.”
Taylor, who claimed that none of the images were “nude or pornographic in any way,” acknowledged it had been a mistake to bring them to work when he faced a disciplinary hearing from the Education Workforce Council.
Embarrassed English teacher John Taylor kept a secret stash of photographs of actress Helen Flanagan in his college closet
The committee said the images were “inappropriate for a learning environment,” but accepted that no one else could access them and that it was not unacceptable professional conduct.
Taylor was fired four years ago for gross misconduct, though he later claimed unfair dismissal.
The embarrassed teacher had already received a written warning for emphasizing the word “c**k” when pronouncing a female student’s last name, “Cockbill.”
The following month, Taylor was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and was hospitalized over the summer due to his condition. He went back to work in September.
During an all-female English GCSE resit class that month, girls as young as 17 complained that Taylor had behaved ‘inappropriately’ towards them. One girl specifically said she saw Taylor looking at another student’s breasts and buttocks as she left class.
The college has several locations across North Wales, including one in Rhyl and another in Rhos-on-Sea. Taylor – who had worked for the university at Rhyl for 23 years – claimed he had problems with his contact lenses causing him to stare, while also blaming his diabetes for problems with his eyesight.
After he was fired, Taylor sued the university for disability discrimination, but an employment tribunal ruled that his conduct was “unrelated to his disability” and dismissed the claim.
Other claims of breach of contract, failure to make reasonable accommodations and unfair dismissal succeeded.
Taylor was fired from Grwp Llandrillo Menai in 2019 after teaching there for 23 years. In the photo: the site of the college in Rhyl
“It’s clear to me that I did some things wrong in my interactions with students towards the end of my tenure at the university,” Taylor said.
The Cardiff Education Workforce Council hearing imposed a two-year reprimand but allowed the English and media teacher to continue working in education.
At the hearing on whether he was fit to teach, five charges of misconduct were proven. It included repeatedly emphasizing part of the name “Cockbill” because of the sexual innuendos.
He claimed he just thought the name was funny, but the commission described his behavior as “infantile and unprofessional” that left the 16-year-old feeling humiliated and uncomfortable.
It was said at the hearing that as an experienced professional, Mr. Taylor should have known better. But it added: ‘Mr. Taylor’s actions were foolish, unprofessional and ill-judged. Under those circumstances, the committee did not, on balance, consider his behavior to be incompatible in principle with continued education.’
