To think that teachers convicted of downloading child pornography should not be allowed to teach?

Totally agree....just ban him.

Weirdest thing about this story is that if he had received a caution for downloading child pornography before applying to train as a teacher, he wouldn't have been accepted. And if he applied for a new teaching job with his record, he would fail the check system.

I read this morning that this man has decided not to return to teaching. When I was involved in joint police/social work investigation/interviews with offences against children, it was local force policy never to caution sex offenders. The reasoning behind this was that there should be risk assessment and intervention with such offenders. Despite the policy, many cautions did take place, presumably as others have said to keep the clear up rate high. I don't understand how the school reached the conclusion it was appropriate for him to return to teaching. Lilygran, spot on, if the caution had been before he trained, he simply wouldn't have been accepted on a course.