Matthew Coombs, a schoolteacher and convicted paedophile, has been prohibited from teaching after transmitting sexually explicit images and communications to an undercover police officer impersonating a 14-year-old. Matthew Coombs had served as headteacher of Hartest Church of England Primary School in Hartest, located south of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, for slightly over three years until he was apprehended in February 2020.
Matthew Coombs engaged in communication with an undercover police officer impersonating a 14-year-old minor on Grindr from February 10 to February 20, 2020. The police informed Coombs that he was merely 14 years old.
Matthew Coombs transmitted sexually explicit texts and images to the ‘kid’ and scheduled a meeting at Cineworld in Ipswich on February 20, 2020, the day of his arrest. In December 2022, Matthew Coombs was found guilty of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a minor at Ipswich Magistrates’ Court.
In May 2023, he received a two-year community order and a sexual harm prevention order at Ipswich Crown Court. On December 3 of this year, the Teaching Regulation Agency determined that Matthew Coombs would be permanently prohibited from teaching and would not be permitted to seek reinstatement of his teaching eligibility.
A report dated December 2, 2024, written after a meeting of the Teaching Regulation Agency’s professional conduct panel, gave an insight into Matthew Coombs’ response to his conviction: “The panel noted that Mr Matthew Coombs had shown a limited level of insight by recognising that his actions constituted “unacceptable conduct” for someone of his professional standing and background as a safeguarding lead.
“However, the panel considered that this insight was very limited and did not demonstrate that Mr Matthew Coombs fully understood the seriousness of the offence for which he had been convicted. In particular, the panel did not accept the account given by Mr Matthew Coombs in his personal statement that he had simply been “naïve” and “incredibly stupid” in his actions and the panel did not accept his submission that he was unaware that the individual was a child.
“The panel also did not consider that excessive alcohol use, which was given by Mr Matthew Coombs as a partial justification for his actions, was an excuse for attempting to engage in sexual communications with a child. The panel also considered that Mr Matthew Coombs’ remarks were largely focused on the impact of the conviction on his own personal circumstances and did not show a requisite level of appreciation for the severity of his offence or its impact on others.”
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