Patrick Devine, a Welsh teacher at Abertillery Learning Community, is facing a professional standards panel over a series of emails sent to a GCSE pupil, in which he called her "bach" and told her he "loved" her personality and company.
Devine, who taught Welsh and was head of the school's modern foreign languages department, admitted exchanging "inappropriate and excessive" emails with the pupil, identified only as Pupil A, but denied any sexual motivation, and none is alleged.
Hundreds of emails sent late at night
Excerpts from the emails, hundreds of which were sent late at night or in the early hours, were read out on the second day of the Workforce Council Wales fitness to practise committee hearing on October 13. The teacher and pupil sometimes called one another nicknames in the series of messages exchanged between April and July 2023.
Devine called his pupil "bach" (little one) and she used the nickname "Pits" for him, said Luke Lambourne, presenting the case for the EWC. Most of the messages were sent over a period when the girl was mainly on study leave and only allowed into school for exams.
989 emails exchanged
Mr Lambourne told the hearing that 989 emails were exchanged between the pair between April and July 2023. Earlier the independent investigator called in by the school, Dr Philip Dixon, had told the hearing that he had been asked to review more than 1,000 emails between the teacher and his pupil.
As well as using nicknames some of the emails referenced alcohol, other teachers and details of their private lives, such as Devine attending a stag do. One message mentioned a bottle of lager and another a glass of wine and there was talk of the teacher drinking a Jägerbomb, Mr Lambourne said.
Content unrelated to education
Much of the content of the emails, 543 of which were sent after 6pm and before 8am, had nothing to do with education, the committee, who had full copies of all, was told. Timings of the messages were also well after school hours. A total of 69 emails were exchanged after 7pm, 90 after 8pm, 148 after 9pm, 139 after 10pm, 69 after 11pm, six after midnight, one at 2am and one at 5am between May and July 2023, the panel heard.
The emails also mention Devine doing impersonations of other teachers at the school, which takes pupils aged from three through to 16, as well as disparaging them and other subjects, the committee was told. In one email the teacher tells Pupil A: "Listen, science is cach (sh*t) anyway." In another he advises her to: "Don't over do it with the maths. We have already established it does not make sense."
Inappropriate gift and continued contact
The panel was also told that on another occasion Devine gave Pupil A and one of her friends tickets to attend a Cardiff City game. The tickets had been given to the school by the football club and were meant to be given to pupils as rewards for good work. Handed like this to Pupil A the ticket should be regarded as an inappropriate gift, Mr Lambourne said.
He also detailed the teacher's response when asked about Pupil A's frequent visits to his classroom. "There was no attempt by him to stop it," Mr Lamourne told the panel. Asked about the amount of time Pupil A spent in his classroom Devine told the investigation: "I never encourage it. Everybody knows my door is open." He went on: "If I told Pupil A it (coming to his classroom alone) had to stop it would have done more harm than good. She was under a lot of pressure. It was a safe place. She came as frequently as before."
The school launched an investigation after other teachers raised concerns about the amount of time Devine, who had worked at the school for seven years, spent alone with the child. It was as a result of this that his emails were examined. The committee heard earlier that even when deputy head Kate Olsen warned Devine not to spend time alone with pupils, he continued to do so. Only hours after she warned him the deputy head saw Pupil A alone with him in his classroom and "escorted" her to the library.
Devine has not attended the hearing and is not represented. While he admitted sending the emails he denied, in the same written statement, that he encouraged Pupil A to spend time alone in his classroom or meet outside school. The teacher also denied allegations that he gave the girl gifts and stroked/touched her wrist at the school's year 11 prom.
The panel has been told that Gwent Police were called in during the school and local education authority investigation and concluded there was no criminal case to answer by Devine. The alleged behaviour was nonetheless "inappropriate" and overfamiliar, the panel was told as it is asked to consider the allegations and whether they amount to unacceptable professional conduct.
"There is a colossal overstepping and lack of adherence to professional boundaries (by Devine)," Mr Lambourne said. The hearing continues.
