Porn probe teacher took own life

An English teacher killed himself after he was caught downloading pornography on a school computer, an inquest heard.

Michael Hall, 34, of Royal Court, Sunderland, was found dead a week after being suspended from Hartlepool's High Tunstall College of Science in January.

Police arrested him after he downloaded files with names including "Teens" and "Don't tell Daddy".

Officers later ruled the images were not child porn and that no charges would be brought.

Mr Hall admitting looking at the images on a school computer at his home.

Staffing problems

He won the job as the college's Head of English after providing "the best references ever seen" by the head teacher Mirjam Buhler-Willey.

However, the court heard he began to suffer anxiety and depression upon finding the English department was in disarray, with staffing problems and a "Mount Everest" of unmarked coursework.

"He had looked at adult pornography and described this as an inexcusable act"
Deputy coroner Karin Welsh

Routine checks by ICT technicians at the college, on 11 and 14 January, revealed Mr Hall had used school equipment to download pornography.

He was suspended and arrested two days later.

Mr Hall was found dead on 22 January.

The deputy coroner for Sunderland Karin Welsh said he had failed to live up to his own high standards, and recorded a verdict of suicide.

She said: "He had clearly severed the arteries in his wrists and died by his own actions.

"He had left a clear note which explains he had looked at adult pornography at home not at school but had used the school computer.

"He described this as an inexcusable act."

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