Deputy headteacher and school safeguarding lead who filmed herself raping young girl gets lifetime ban from teaching after being jailed for child sex offences

Julie Morris, who was deputy headteacher and safeguarding lead at St George’s Central CE Primary School in Tyldesley, confessed to 18 sexual abuse offences, including two rapes, and was sent to prison for 13 years and four months in December 2021.

The 44-year-old and her partner David Morris filmed themselves abusing and raping the victim, a girl under the age of 13, in a series of videos. Now, Morris, of Ancroft Drive, Hindley, has been banned from teaching indefinitely after a professional conduct panel meeting by the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA).

The meeting was held in private via Microsoft Teams, after Morris asked that the allegations be considered without a hearing. The panel was told Morris, who had been a teacher since 2005, was suspended as soon as the case was brought to the school’s attention on September 7, 2021 and was dismissed three days later. None of the offences related to her employment. However, photographs she had taken of pupils were shared, but they were not indecent, the TRA said.

The panel found Morris had breached Teachers’ Standards and the conviction was “directly relevant to Ms Morris’ ongoing suitability to teach”. The report said: “The panel considered that Ms Morris’ behaviour in committing these offences would undoubtedly affect public confidence in the teaching profession, particularly given the influence that teachers may have on pupils, parents and others in the community. Her conduct ran counter to what should be at the very core of the practice of a teacher with a duty of care towards children.

"The fact that Ms Morris was also the safeguarding lead at her school makes her offending all the more shocking in that, whilst the designated point of contact for welfare and safety concerns at the school, she herself was engaged in abusing a child, albeit not one at the school.” The panel found her “actions were fundamentally incompatible with her being a teacher” and decision maker David Oatley said a ban was “proportionate and in the public interest”.

In December 2021, Liverpool Crown Court heard Morris and partner David Morris filmed themselves abusing and raping the victim, a girl under the age of 13, in a series of videos. She pleaded guilty to two counts of rape, nine of inciting child under the age of 13 to engage in sexual activity and two of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child. She also admitted three counts of taking indecent images of a child, one of engaging in sexual communication with a child and one of possessing indecent images of a child. Paul Becker, defending her, said she had “lost everything in life”, including her reputation, career and home. He said: “She was held in high regard prior to her offending.” He said that when she met David Morris she was at a “low ebb” after she discovered her husband of 15 years had been unfaithful. In interview, Julie Morris admitted the offences but claimed the victim had wanted to take part. Judge Menary said: “That last statement is breath-taking in its inappropriateness.”

David Morris, 52, who pleaded guilty to 34 offences at an earlier hearing was jailed for 16 years, with an extended licence period of four years, for 34 offences, including seven counts of rape and 13 counts of causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity.

The court heard the videos showed Julie Morris giggling as the abuse took place. The offences are not related to Julie Morris’s employment at the school. John Wyn Williams, prosecuting, said the couple met on dating app Plenty of Fish in 2016 after both had separated from their partners and the relationship “quickly became intensely sexual”. He said: “The communication between them became graphic and depraved which led to some of their sexual fantasies becoming a reality.”

Mr Wyn Williams said the couple’s “sordid secret” was revealed when police found a conversation about sexual abuse of children involving David Morris in a phone seized during a search warrant. He was arrested but cautioned and released and a number of devices were seized, which showed the recordings of rape and sexual abuse, the court heard. Mr Wyn Williams said both defendants were arrested the following day as they appeared to be trying to evade police. He said: “They were on their way to the Lake District in a camper van with £10,000 in their possession.”

David Morris, of Sandfield Road, Eccleston, St Helens, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to seven counts of rape, 13 counts of causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, two counts of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child, taking indecent images, of categories A, B and C, possessing and distributing indecent images, two counts of engaging in sexual communications with a child, three counts of voyeurism, possession of an extreme pornographic image and possession of a prohibited image of a child.

Mairead Neeson, senior prosecutor at the CPS, said the case was one of the worst she had seen in her career, adding: “The descriptions of what they did are so horrific that when I finished reading them. I burst into tears. It’s a young child whose innocence has been stolen.”

Children who need support can contact Childline on 0800 1111 or through the website at www.childline.org.uk. Adults with concerns about the safety or wellbeing of a child can phone the NSPCC helpline on 0808 8005000 or email [email protected]