Trojan Horse disciplinary action against school teachers thrown out

In its ruling on Tuesday, the panel acknowledged that a decision to halt proceedings “should only be taken in exceptional circumstances”

A long-running disciplinary case against senior teachers allegedly at the centre of the so-called Trojan Horse schools affair has been thrown out.

A professional conduct panel of the National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) ruled that the hearing into five people should be discontinued.

The Trojan Horse controversy centred on allegations of a plot to “Islamify” Birmingham schools.

The controversy sparked several inquiries and led to five former members of the Park View Educational Trust senior leadership team - Monzoor Hussain, Lindsey Clark, Razwan Faraz, Arshad Hussain and Hardeep Saini - being brought before an NCTL disciplinary panel.

In its ruling on Tuesday, the panel acknowledged that a decision to halt proceedings “should only be taken in exceptional circumstances”.

But it said: “The panel has decided that, in the particular circumstances relating to this case, there has been an abuse of the process which is of such seriousness that it offends the panel’s sense of justice and propriety.

“What has happened has brought the integrity of the process into disrepute.”

The “stage has been reached where it would be fair and appropriate” for proceedings to be discontinued, it said.

The NCTL started proceedings against the teachers in the summer of 2015.

The decision came about after lawyers for Monzoor Hussain and Mr Saini led an application to dismiss the central claim their clients had allowed an undue amount of religious influence in Park View school.

Their barrister Andrew Faux said “late disclosure” of evidence had led to a “failure to ensure that all relevant material was disclosed to the defence”.

He claimed the NCTL’s lawyers failed to obtain material, including witness statements from fellow teachers and staff, from “their ultimate client”, the Department for Education (DfE).

In its judgment, the panel agreed there had been “serious failures” of disclosure.

There was particular criticism for the failure to disclose transcripts, given by witnesses during the separate Government-ordered Peter Clarke inquiry, to the panel.

Their findings stated: “The panel has also found the deliberate decision to withhold, and not declare the existence of, the Clarke transcripts prior to the commencement of proceedings to represent an extraordinarily serious error of judgement as opposed to bad faith.”

In further highly critical remarks directed at the NCTL, the panel also said: “Even now, once the failures have been identified, the panel considers that there has been a lack of candour and openness with regard to the underlying reasons for those failures and a lack of cooperation in assisting the panel to get to the bottom of what has happened.”

Lawyers for Monzoor Hussain said in a statement issued after the hearing: “Mr Hussain and his colleagues had nothing to hide and looked forward to demonstrating that their approach had been mainstream educational practice for years by calling experts to confirm this and having former pupils from the school speak of their achievements and dispute the allegations.

“However it soon became clear the procedure the Government used to bring the case to trial was fundamentally flawed.”

It went on: “For three years Mr Hussain has been unable to carry out his profession, with all the financial pressures that has caused to his family.

“He welcomes that this unnecessary prosecution has finally ended.”

An NCTL spokesman said: “The NCTL will carefully consider this latest panel hearing before deciding the next steps in this process.

“It would not be appropriate to comment further at this stage.”

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