Former Olympic martial arts hopeful among teacher banned

Staff members whose conduct has fallen beyond the standard expected from their profession face a grilling from independent panels put together by the teacher regulation agency (TRA).

The agency investigates cases of serious misconduct and can impose a number of sanctions on teachers regarding their offence. These can stretch as far as a ban from the classroom altogether.

The Local Democracy Reporter Service has sat in on a series of hearings throughout this year relating to the behaviour of education officials across the Liverpool City Region. Among the cases was former science teacher Adam Lowery.

Rainford High School (Image: St Helens Star)

In March 2021, Mr Lowery, who was once the second highest ranked judoka in Great Britain, provided a boy known as pupil A with questions and the marking scheme for physics, chemistry and biology tests that would go on to inform his GCSE grade at Rainford High School. With exams suspended owing to the coronavirus pandemic, grades for year 11 students were informed by internal testing and teacher’s marks.

A TRA panel was told how the boy Mr Lowery helped was expected to achieve relatively standard grades. However he scored 44 out of a possible 45 on two out of three exams and 41 out of 46 on a third.

Prior to this, he had been provided with exam questions and the marking scheme by Mr Lowery, who would go on to invigilate the physics exam pupil A took part in. Concerns were first raised by three teachers independently who identified pupil A’s exam marks as “extraordinarily high” and answers were similar to those within the documents made available to staff only.

Pupil A was interviewed who said he had achieved the grades “through hard work” before backtracking and claiming to have got the answers online. He said this was due to the “pressure to do well.”

Mr Lowery was also interviewed on the same day and said he had prepared all pupils in the same way but had created preparation for pupil A online. It transpired later he had in fact given pupil A a pack and told him how to answer the questions.

Mr Lowery – who resigned in May 2021 – initially lied as he was “terrified” of the situation. The former teacher said felt he had let down the community and the school through his behaviour in a “moment of madness and stupidity.”

He added: “Not a moment goes by where I don’t regret it but I can’t turn the clock back.” He was subsequently banned from teaching for life but can appeal the decision in July 2026.

Meanwhile, a date is yet to be determined as to when a teacher accused of sexually assaulting a colleague at work and in his home could face a decision on his future. Over a 12 month period, Hugh O’Neill is alleged to have touched and made remarks about a former colleague’s breasts.

During the same period, Mr O’Neill is alleged to have had sexual contact with a female colleague despite her asking him to stop. The woman, known as Colleague A who worked with the teacher at a school in Knowsley, sobbed after recalling how she felt she couldn’t speak out for fears she would lose her job.

After three days of evidence and another of deliberation, a decision could not be made as to whether the allegations made about Mr O’Neill amounted to unacceptable professional conduct and conduct that brings the profession into disrepute. As a result, a wait goes on to establish whether the 45-year-old Irishman will be allowed to teach again.

Mr O’Neill is reported to have made a number of comments about the female staff member, including saying she “looked busty” and was a “sexy b***h.” He denies the allegations and said there had been a consensual relationship between the pair.

On one occasion Colleague A said she had been on a night out and was walking home at which point it is alleged Mr O’Neill called her and “insisted” on giving her a lift back. She said the teacher had told her to wait where she was and after arriving at her flat said “would it be cheeky if I asked for a kiss?” Colleague A rejected this, which allegedly did not deter Mr O’Neill who said “it would be fun” and kept trying to kiss her “over a number of minutes.”

This was rejected by the teacher who described it as “a bit ludicrous to be honest, it’s not how I would conduct myself or behave.” During questioning from Mark Millin, on behalf of the TRA, regarding the alleged touching of colleague A’s breasts during the school day, Mr O’Neill said it would be “virtually impossible to behave like that in school” adding, “I know it didn’t happen.”

Mr O’Neill said he taught with “an open door policy so people can see me” and “my professionalism was paramount at all times.” Colleague A said how the incidents made her feel like “less of a person and cheap” and it “reduced me to body parts every day.”

Asked by Mr O’Neill’s representative Nicholas Kennan why she didn’t report this behaviour if it made her feel this way, Colleague A said: “I honestly thought I would lose my job if I said anything. I didn’t think I’d be believed and they’d get rid of me and I’d have no job or money coming in.”

Put to her she was in a consensual relationship with Mr O’Neill, Colleague A denied this and said there had been a “clear power imbalance” between the two. Details were also made public about other alleged incidents that occurred outside of school.

It was said how at one time, Mr O’Brien called Colleague A when he was drunk asking for a lift. The panel was told the woman “reluctantly” did so and went into his home where she was pressured to stay the night and share a bed with Mr O’Neill.

It was alleged he removed her jeans and had non-consensual sex with her and on another occasion was subjected to another non-consensual sexual assault. Mr O’Neill said the pair had sex consensually and regarding the “very serious allegation” of a non-consensual sexual assault, he said: “I don’t know why she said it, but I didn’t do it.”

He said colleague A had been likened to a “bit of a fantasist” by someone they had both previously worked with and he did not know why she had made the allegations against him. Mr O’Neill said: “I want to put this behind us and get back to the job I was taken away from.”

Colleague A resigned from the school claiming it “felt impossible to work there anymore.” She said: “I just wanted to move on with my life.” A new date will be set for the case to be concluded.