A chemistry teacher convicted of sexually assaulting an 18-year-old woman in a shop has been struck off the teachers register.
The General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) took the decision about 42-year-old former Oban High School chemistry teacher Boyd Sigerson following a recent procedural hearing.
Sigerson was told he is unfit to teach, as a result of breaching the GTCS code of professionalism and conduct through his conviction at Oban Sheriff Court.
He pleaded guilty last year to touching the woman’s bottom. The court heard that his victim recognised him because he was a teacher at Oban High School.
Sigerson, of Benderloch, was placed on the sex offenders register. Sentence has been deferred until June 19 this year.
Sheriff Ruth Anderson said: “From the narration given by the Crown and what I saw on the CCTV it was clearly unacceptable but drunken behaviour. It clearly caused the complainer some distress.”
She continued: “He has lost his job, his profession. Lost his reputation. He has paid very dearly for this drunken stupidity.”
Sigerson had made a bid to keep the outcome of the recent GTCS hearing private.
A meeting was arranged to consider his application for privacy and for his name to be anonymised in the outcome issued at the conclusion of the case. In accordance with the rules, the meeting was held in private.
In the outcome published on the body’s website a GTCS spokesman wrote: “The overarching principles of openness, transparency and fairness are the basis for the normal position that hearings are held in public and that written decisions are published. The panel agreed with the presenting officer’s submission that the bar is set high, to justify the anonymization of a written decision. This is because of the disclosure of such information being in the public interest and because of the need to maintain confidence in the GTCS as a regulator.
“In all of the circumstances, the panel were not satisfied that, in the circumstances of this serious allegation which has been admitted, the teacher’s interests in having the decision anonymized outweighed the public interest. Given that the teacher has consented to the Consent Order, his name will be removed from the register and he will be prohibited from applying for restoration to that register for a period of two years.”
