Former Eton College Master Banned from Teaching for Life After Sex Offenses

Matthew Mowbray, a former geography teacher at Eton College, has been banned from the classroom for life after being convicted of a string of sexual offenses against pupils. Mowbray admitted his actions were "an open and shut case" and agreed he should never teach again.

He was sentenced to five years in prison in December 2020 after a jury found him guilty of eight counts of sexual activity with a child and one count of voyeurism. The offenses involved four boys between 2012 and 2019 and took place at the prestigious £48,501-per-year school in Berkshire.

Reading Crown Court heard that Mowbray made nocturnal visits to students' rooms under the guise of helping with their work, but would then touch them for his own sexual gratification. He also ran a photography club where he took pictures of pupils and later superimposed their faces onto the naked bodies of unknown children. Additionally, Mowbray covertly filmed a boy dressing in the privacy of his room.

The Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) panel, who struck Mowbray off for life, expressed concern about the significant risk of his behavior repeating. "Given that I have been sent to prison, this is an open and shut case," Mowbray said. "I should not teach again."

Mowbray taught geography at Eton from 1993 to 2020 and served as a housemaster from 2010 until his arrest in 2017. The TRA panel, chaired by Ms Jo Palmer-Tweed, stated that the offenses had "significant effects on the pupils," resulting in lasting impacts such as depression, anxiety, stress, nervousness, loss of confidence, embarrassment, physical and psychological pain, and sadness.

The panel emphasized that public confidence in the teaching profession would be severely undermined if such conduct were not treated with the utmost seriousness. They found no evidence that Mowbray acted under duress, concluding that his actions were deliberate.

In addition to his prison sentence, Mowbray was also made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years and will remain on the sex offenders register for life.