A FORMER Easingwold teacher has been convicted of “unacceptable professional conduct” for sexual activity with a 14-year-old boy.

Andrew James Duffell, once an ICT teacher at Easingwold School, faced a hearing at the National College of Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) yesterday, over allegations he struck up a relationship with a 14-year-old boy, first online and then in person.

Duffell, who was not present at the hearing, faces a ban on teaching when the NCTL panel meets again in the new year to decide what action to take.

The panel found the teacher had first made friends with the youngster, who was not an Easingwold student, on Facebook in 2012, before swapping sexual WhatsApp messages and engaging in a sex act with the child in a car at a secluded spot in the North East.

Duffell worked at Easingwold School between 2009 and 2012 and was promoted to the post of assistant principal teacher in Business and Enterprise in 2011.

He was suspended in November 2012, when the allegations came to light, and resigned a year later.

Although police began an investigation, the NCTL papers show the case was dropped in December 2013 and Cleveland Police have since confirmed there are no criminal charges against Duffell.

The panel heard from the teenager’s mother, who had been shocked to find WhatsApp messages between Duffell and her son.

Although the teacher denied having sex with the boy, or knowing he was only 14, the panel decided the youngster’s accounts were more credible and ruled that judging by photographs of the child at the time, a teacher of Duffell’s experience should have known he was only 14.

A North Yorkshire County Council spokesman has confirmed that Easingwold School followed all its policies and procedures when the allegations came to light.

The council’s director of children and young people’s services Pete Dwyer said: “North Yorkshire is extremely vigilant in its duty to safeguard children — it is our top priority. As soon as these allegations came to light the school acted in line with its internal procedures.

He is no longer employed at the school by the authority.”