Missing records of abuse teacher

The teacher used chess to get close to pupils

A teacher who abused children over 13 years continued to work in schools for another 11 years after the offences were committed.

Education authority records which could have clarified whether allegations were made against him a decade ago have been destroyed.

Reports that accusations had been made in 1989 about the teacher, John Walker, cannot be confirmed or denied by Oxfordshire County Council.

And the council has been unable to establish whether Walker received a formal warning following allegations.

Walker, who pleaded guilty to 35 charges of indecency and indecent assault between 1976 and 1989, left employment with the local authority in 1989.

He then became a teacher in a private school - where he worked until police investigations began in autumn 2000.

The head teacher of the private school where he taught said the school had carried out checks with the Department for Education and the police and that no concerns had been raised.

The head said that he had been an "extremely competent" member of staff and that no allegations of abuse had ever been raised.

Destroyed

According to the local authority, teachers' records are only kept for three years and one term, and so Walker's had been destroyed.

But John Mitchell, assistant to the chief education officer at Oxfordshire County Council, said that in serious cases of misconduct, records would have been kept.

As Walker's records were not kept, he suggests that they did not contain any allegations of child abuse - but that it was now impossible to be certain.

The only information retained about Walker were details such as when he was employed - between 1974 and 1989 - and there was nothing to indicate any disciplinary procedures.

Arrested

If the council had received information indicating concerns over child abuse, Mr Mitchell said the Department for Education would have been informed.

The Department for Education said it had no record of any such complaint against Walker.

The charges to which Walker pleaded guilty on Monday resulted from information provided to the police in September 2000 by people who had been at school at the time of the offences.

Thames Valley police say that Walker was arrested in November 2000 and first charged in March 2001, with other charges following.