Teacher banned after secretly filming student and making wrapping paper with their face on it
A teacher who sent inappropriate emails and notes and secretly photographed and filmed his students has been banned from teaching indefinitely.
Peter Ledwidge, a religious studies teacher at the Anglo European School in Essex, was found to have engaged in behavior that was sexually motivated and/or of a sexual nature.
A professional conduct panel also heard Mr Ledwidge gave unwanted gifts to students; One of them was given a pair of socks wrapped in paper with his face written on it.
The panel said: “Evidence from searches of Mr Ledwidge’s devices demonstrates Mr Ledwidge’s infatuation with Student A, with him admitting when interviewed by Police that Police described this behavior as ‘obsessive’ about him.”
The emails revealed that Mr Ledwidge sent inappropriate emails to a student between October 2019 and May 2021, in which he referred to her as his “special” and “favourite”.
“Like the moon: its magnificence when visible, its charm when invisible,” one email read, while another read, “’…please don’t say anything about this to ANYONE.”
The emails were obtained after the school’s IT team searched Mr Ledwidge’s computer.
In a note to the same student, he told her: “I hope you don’t mind if I express in words (paraphrasing Elton John) how wonderful life is while you are in class.”
Another note read: “If you had chosen Spanish over RS, I would have quickly trained to become a Spanish teacher.”
He also gave trial exam questions to the students before the exam.
The board heard Mr Ledwidge sent the student unsolicited gifts, including a flat cap, an engraved mirror, a record and a drawing of George Harrison.
In his witness statement to the police, the student said that he did not want the items and that these items made him “sick with disgust”.
Mr Ledwidge also performed a karate chop and kicked the student in the butt. When asked about the incident, he said it was a “Marx Brothers joke” and not for sexual gratification.
During the police investigation, it was revealed that the former teacher had made internet searches that included the student’s address.
The search also revealed secretly taken videos and images of students; one of them told police he “instinctively thought, oh I’m going to videotape it, I don’t know, maybe as a keepsake, as a memory, I don’t know”.
When asked why he needed the student’s memoir, he said he created a character based on it for his book and “in the end you don’t get a photo.”
In another incident, another student was given a pair of socks made of special wrapping paper with his face written on it.
The panel also heard that between January 2021 and May 2021 he sent videos containing violent and sexually explicit scenes from his personal email address to his work email address.
In May 2021, a student disclosed Mr Ledwidge’s behavior to the school and he was suspended from the school and referred to Essex Police.
Two months later, he was arrested on suspicion of two counts of harassment by a police officer in connection with allegations by two students.
The Crown Prosecution Service took no action against the teacher.
Due to the seriousness of the allegations against him, Mr Ledwidge does not have the right to apply for the ban to be lifted.
