Grammar School teacher, 44, who had sex with student, receives lifetime teaching ban 14 years after affair
22 November 2022, 01:25 | Updated: 22 November 2022, 06:57
A Grammar School teacher who had sexual relationship with a sixth-former behind her husband's back has received a lifetime ban from teaching, after the affair was reported to the school's headteacher 14 years later.
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Keeley Dean, 44, was teaching at Oakwood Park Grammar School in Maidstone, Kent, when the eight-month affair took place in 2008.
The sordid sexual relationship only came to light when the now-married pupil, known only as 'Pupil A', reported it to the school in 2020 - some 14 years after the fling took place.
Ms Dean, a geography teacher, denied all allegations but has now been handed a lifetime ban from the classroom after a panel found her actions to be sexually motivated.
The Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) disciplinary panel found Ms Dean guilty of meeting the boy at his home, kissing him and having sex with him on a number of occasions - including once in a hotel room.
Alan Wells, chair of the Teaching Regulation Agency hearing, said on November 10: "Pupil A explained that he considered the relationship to be platonic at the time.
"However, they decided to go to the cinema further away because Ms Dean was married and they did not want anyone to question that."
They panel told how the pupil had reported the historic sexual relationship after "keeping them a secret had been eating away at him".
It's believed the pair exchanged emails and chatted in the classroom at Oakwood Park Grammar School over the following months, with Ms Dean inviting the student to the cinema before exchanging mobile numbers.
It's said the geography teacher, who was 30 at the time, seduced the student over dinner at his home during the festive period in 2008.
Mr Wells added: "Pupil A's parents were away on his father's Christmas work do.
"Pupil A explained that he invited Ms Dean to his house for the first time because he was there alone."
"Ms Dean came to Pupil A's house for dinner and he recalled that she went to the toilet and when she came back she sat on the sofa next to him, grabbed his hand and said 'what are we doing to do about this'.
"Pupil A explained that he then leant in and kissed Ms Dean and they then had sex for the first time."
Pupil A and Ms Dean met up regularly after school for sex at her house - as often as "two or three times a week", with Ms Dean then dropping the student at a nearby bus stop.
It's believed the relationship came to an end in June 2009 after the student's friends became suspicious.
11 years later, in April 2020, the former student chose to contact the school's headteacher using social networking site LinkedIn and subsequently revealed the affair.
Ms Dean claimed her former pupil had fabricated the allegations, dismissing the claims as simply a pupil who was "infatuated" with her.
Banning Ms Dean from the profession for life, Alan Meyrick, for the Education Secretary, said: "The panel noted Ms Dean admitted that she was aware that it was inappropriate to have an intimate relationship with a pupil.
"In my judgement, the apparent lack of full insight means that there is some risk of the repetition of this behaviour and this puts at risk the future wellbeing of pupils."
