A teacher who told a 15-year-old pupil he was “falling deeply in love with you” has been banned from the classroom.

Emmanuel Egbe, now 58, was an English teacher at Challney High School for Girls in Luton when the concerns were raised by the pupil’s aunt in July 2016.

A National College for Teaching and Leadership report, published today, found that he gave the girl his mobile phone number, exchanged text and/or social media messages with her, and told her to delete the messages.

It says several exchanges of messages were sent and received “very late at night and at weekends”, including one where he said: “I’m falling deeply in love with you and I hope you feel the same too”.

The teenager’s sister messaged Mr Egbe to say “how could you send a 15-year-old such disgusting messages...”.

In a message to the pupil, Mr Egbe wrote: “[Pupil A], we have to hold off for now. I got a disturbing text from your sister. I have to think about what I’m getting myself into. She has read all our messages but don’t confront her or else you might force her to report you to your parents.”

The teenager responded with a series of messages such as “What did the messages say”, “just tell me”, and later “my heart is broken know [sic]”.

In another message, Mr Egbe said: “You must delete all messages on your phone. Your cousin seems to have said something about me to her friends and have been looking and giggling whenever I pass them. I feel that giving you my number was a big big mistake.”

Mr Egbe admitted sending the messages, but denied they were sexual in nature, or sexually motived, and gave three explanations:

• his relationship with Pupil A was like that between a father and daughter;
• his conduct was a result of possible health episodes and he was not thinking or acting rationally at the time;
• his words were being taken out of context and his expression of love was actually for Pupil A’s commitment to her studies.

The panel found that the “totality of the messages” was romantic and sexual in nature, and Mr Egbe’s evidence was “inconsistent and contradictory”.

He denied that trying to conceal his contact with her was dishonest, saying he had gone into “self-preservation mode”, and “did not want anyone to see the messages and get the wrong idea, or misunderstand what was going on”.

However, the panel rejected this argument.

It recommended that Mr Egbe be banned from teaching, but said the prohibition order could be reviewed after five years because Mr Egbe had shown “glimmers of insight”, and had accepted that he would need further training on professional boundaries and safeguarding.

Decision-maker Alan Meyrick agreed with the panel’s recommendations.

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