A TEACHER has been struck off after creating a massive online database of female porn stars.
Neil MacFarlane accessed the database while at school and used class time to google terms such as “nunsploitation” and “birds you would like to pummel”.
Mr MacFarlane, who taught at Greenfaulds High School, Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire, also kept a handwritten diary of notes referring to porn magazines in his desk.
The science, chemistry and computing teacher was caught out in October 2014 when a member of staff caught him looking at an explicit image and an IT specialist was called in.
Following a disciplinary hearing of the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS), the body decided to ban him from the profession.
The charges, which were all found proved, stated: “On exact dates unknown you did download pornographic images on your computer and access inappropriate websites on your computer whilst teaching during school hours including sport, horror, celebrity information and pornography.
“You did possess a diary containing handwritten notes referring to pornographic magazines in a desk drawer in your classroom.”
A second charge stated: “On or around 24 October 2014 whilst employed as a teacher by North Lanarkshire Council at Greenfaulds High School, you did view pornographic images on a computer whilst teaching.”
During the hearing witness statements were made by Andrew McNaughton, an ICT Network Support Officer at North Lanarkshire Council.
Mr McNaughton stated that a Dropbox folder in the Mr MacFarlane’s account on the workstation featured sub-folders containing material of a pornographic nature.
He claimed that the content was mostly images which appeared to have been scanned in from printed magazines.
And sub-folders were named after well-known pornographic magazines and referred to the database of content including “possibly every female pornographic magazine model of previous eras”.
Images that were found ranged from naked woman on their own to male and females “appearing to engage in sexual activity”.
He also stated that websites had been accessed during school hours using the search words “conventional birds you would like to pummel” and “nunsploitation”.
On 24 October 2014 the school’s deputy head teacher Suzanne Beattie said she walked into his classroom and spotted him sat in front of a “full sized nude picture” of a woman.
The GTCS stated: “The screen was facing the respondent with the pupils sitting around the three walls. Mrs Beattie stated that anyone walking into the room would have seen the explicitly nude picture.
“Mrs Beattie explained that when the Respondent saw her enter the room, he quickly minimised the screen or closed it down. He was flustered but did not say anything.”
Mr MacFarlane offered a statement accepting that pornographic images were present on the computer but said this was unintentional.
He claimed the images had been transferred to the computer due to an automatic synchronisation from his personal Dropbox file sharing account.
He also admitted that the diary was present in his drawer but stated that it was private and accessed only by himself.
He denied viewing pornographic images on a computer whilst teaching and said the image Mrs Beattie saw was “from a film he was watching during his lunch hour” which had been buffering”.
The panel issued MacFarlane with a removal order and concluded: “Whilst there was no evidence that any pupils had seen pornography as a result of the respondent’s conduct, the respondent had placed pupils at risk of harm by downloading and viewing pornographic images on his computer at school.
“There was a risk that pupils could have observed the images on his computer. This was a significant risk when he had been viewing an image when he was supposed to be teaching a class.
“The Panel considered that the viewing of such images by pupils on the Respondent’s computer would have caused pupils shock and distress.
“His extensive personal web use over a two day period demonstrated that he was not carrying out tasks relevant to teaching for significant periods over the school day.
“The Panel concluded that there was a high risk of recurrence was the Respondent to continue to be registered and that he is currently unfit to teach.”
