Former Patna Primary teacher, Bilal al-Bukhaari has been struck off for sending a picture of a woman wearing a bra to a 17 year old school pupil

Bilal al-Bukhaari, formerly known as Gerry Corr, was struck off by the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) at a misconduct hearing last week.

The complaint against al-Bukhaari was that between February 5 2014 and February 27 2014 he repeatedly sent messages via the Blackberry Messenger Service to the 17-year old girl, referred to as Pupil A, including messages inviting her to go running, offering to take her to a football match, offering to take her to Manchester, and a message saying “come down with me” instead of “come dine with me”.

He also offered to buy tickets to a Celtic match for her.

Between February 5 2014 and February 27 2014, he sent a screenshot of a female friend wearing only a bra to the girl.

On August 29 2014, he stated in his disciplinary hearing that the screenshot had been sent to the girl in error and that he had meant to send her a photo of a person with dwarfism because he considered it to be funny.

As part of a course that the pupil was undertaking, a period spent on placement was required, which she wanted to carry out in a primary school and a placement was arranged at Patna Primary.

It had been decided that the Head Teacher at Patna Primary School would be informed that the pupil was from the Supported Learning Centre but that the teachers would not, to ensure fairness to the girl.

However, the Principal Teacher of the Supported Learning Centre at Doon Academy stated that she suspected that it would be clear from conversations with the pupil that she had additional support needs and noted that she could come across as quite immature and operated at the age of a 12 year old, despite being 17 years old.

The GTCS papers stated how the Principal Teacher noted that: “Pupil A had gone for her first placement day on February 5 2014. After the February holiday, Pupil A was due to return to her placement on February 12 2014. However, she began asking her class teacher if she had to go back; she said to him that she did not feel comfortable returning and that she had received some messages through Blackberry messenger from the Respondent. However, she had deleted the messages.”

The girls class teacher reported the messages to the principal.

The papers added: “Pupil A appeared to be very nervous and was obviously upset, which was not a usual reaction from Pupil A; this suggested that there was truth in what she had said.”

The Principal Teacher said that she telephoned the Head Teacher at Patna Primary School and it was agreed that the Head Teacher would speak with al-Bukhaari about how the placement had gone.

The Head Teacher phoned her back within 15 minutes and said that she had been uncomfortable with the length and detail of his answer to her enquiry.

The paper added: “She said that he was very enthusiastic and the detail of his answers worried her. She felt that he just started to talk without any further prompts, providing a lot of information; he knew where Pupil A lived, that she had a brother and said that Pupil A was an amazing young lady. The Head Teacher said that it had made her feel uncomfortable given that she had only asked him how the placement had gone.”

The paper added: “Pupil A said that she had responded saying that she was fine or telling the Respondent what she was doing. Pupil A said that some of the messages asked her if she liked running and offered to take her running.

“She also reported that the Respondent had asked her if she liked football and he had told her that he could get them tickets to go and see Celtic play.

“Pupil A also told her about a picture that the Respondent had sent to her. She said that Pupil A was convinced that it was a screenshot of the Respondent face-timing another person.

“Pupil A said that she could only see the top half of the woman’s torso and she was only wearing a bra.”

In a statement to the panel, al-Bukhaari said: “that he had said to Pupil A that he was going to start training as part of the Football Fans in Fitness programme and had discussed going running. Pupil A said that she sometimes went running too. He said that the conversation developed around his lack of motivation to run and he said something like “maybe I will need a trainer when I’m not at FFIT”.

He said that this was intended as a humorous comment and never intended that to mean ‘let’s go running’. He realised that this could look entirely different written down.

“The Respondent said that, given that he was not denying offering to give Pupil A a lift to Manchester, it made no sense for him to be untruthful regarding this allegation.”

Al-Bukhaari denies offering to take the girl to a Celtic match, saying it was “100 per cent untrue”. The paper added: “He said that the only mention he had made of football was that he was going to train at a football club and a comment about the liquidation of a football club.”

Al-Bukhaari also denied sending an image of a friend wearing only a bra. He accepted that he had sent an image of his friend to Pupil A by mistake. However, the image was of a person who had lifted her jumper to show her underwear. He said that there was little or no flesh showing in the image at all. He said that he was embarrassed as soon as it had gone. He had selected the last image in his image gallery.

He also said that the allegation that he found people suffering from dwarfism to be funny was ‘absolutely untrue’. He said that the image that he had intended to send was of a smaller person and that he had used the word dwarf at the disciplinary hearing in error because he was under a great deal of stress and pressure and was incredibly upset.

The panel ruled to remove al-Bukhaari from the teaching register and he will be unable to re-register for two years.

He has right to appeal.

East Ayrshire Council education chief, Alan Ward said: “We don’t comment on individual cases but I can confirm that the individual is no longer an employee.”