1
Background
Brian Pead was appointed Head Teacher of a pupil referral unit in Lambeth on 1 August 2005, after some 23 years in teaching. The Unit was to be called the Old Library Centre Virtual School and it was housed in the Old Library in West Norwood, London, which was actually home to a community centre. The ‘Virtual School’ was housed in two large ‘classrooms’ which doubled as rooms in which yoga, dancing and other activities took place for members of the community. The entire building, both inside and out, was monitored by CCTV. Brian Pead’s office faced the Reception area and consisted of a wall of glass, with glass doors forming part of the ‘wall’. Transparency – in all its forms – was evident.
At the time, Brian Pead lived in Sidcup, Kent and it took him between an hour and a half and two hours to travel to the Unit. He is a man who puts his ‘heart and soul’ into a project if he believes in it and he believed in this project.
It was created to provide an education for pupils in Lambeth who had no school place and who were deemed ‘NEET’ - or those who were not in education, employment or training. Some of the pupils – aged between 14 and 16 – had not previously been to secondary school.
This was precisely the type of challenge that Brian Pead relished. Little did he know that, in accepting the post as Head Teacher, he would be setting up the first in a long line of events which were to have a catastrophic impact on every aspect of his life. Whilst in his role as Head Teacher, he took one decision which caused him to lose his job, his house, his savings, his family, his friends and his reputation.
The OLCVS opened in September 2005 and grew rapidly under Brian’s energetic and strategic leadership. By November he was given permission by Barry Gilhooly, his line manager, to increase the staffing levels and acquire supply teachers to aid with the development of the curriculum by offering the vulnerable students a wider choice of subjects.
Into the happy environment arrived a South African supply teacher of ICT (Information and Communications Technology). She was aged around 30 and claimed to have been Head of ICT at St. Augustine’s School in Ealing.
This one claim alone alerted Brian Pead because he is a man who has a propensity to notice things which do not seem ‘quite right’. Why would a woman claiming to be a Head of Department of an all-girls’ school in Ealing (and much nearer to her home in Morden) want to travel to a pupil referral unit with much more difficult pupils? And why would she be taking a significant drop in salary from her alleged £38,000 per annum to a daily rate of around £120 per day (before tax and insurance) with absolutely no job security?
It is these little things that Brian notices. He does not necessarily act upon these finer details, but he notices them and records them (sometimes on paper or sometimes in his mind) and he watches and observes and tests out his hypotheses about people.
At this time he was also a student counsellor at the Centre for Professional and Personal Development in Hornsey, north London.
He had been interested in psychology and people all of his life, since he lived in a children’s home between 1955 and 1960. In that time he had been sexually abused and observed how the ‘sisters’ meted out severe punishments in the name of God.
He had lived with an abusive step-mother whose cruelty included tearing up all of ten-year-old Brian’s books in a fit of rage (knowing how much he loved his reading) and throwing them in the dustbin. His crime? Selling his poster of The Beatles for sixpence (2½p) and his step-mother finding the money in his trousers’ pocket and immediately believing that he had stolen it.
He had watched how she rubbed his younger brother’s nose in his urine-soaked sheets in a misguided attempt to prevent Alan from wetting the bed. Brian had watched as his older brother, Robert, had kept running away from home because his maternal needs were not met by this impetuous woman.
Brian had watched while his father had always taken the side of the step-mother no matter what the children’s version of events was. The young Brian observed the sisters in the children’s home, observed his John Wayne father and observed his controlling step-mother as he gained unique insights into the cruelty that human beings often inflict upon one another. Throughout this period in his life, he was observing and learning. These were lessons that taught him a great deal.
Thus, when the South African supply teacher calling herself Maryn Murray arrived at the Unit, Brian Pead, now aged 52, had half a century of knowledge of people at his disposal. Something about this woman was not right. She made too much effort to ingratiate herself. She claimed to be on a sabbatical from St. Augustine’s School in Ealing, yet also complained on a weekly basis that she never had enough money and no job security.
Initially, however, she worked hard and under Brian’s guidance, helped to develop the ICT within the Unit.
Towards the end of the first academic year, she became increasingly difficult around obtaining a permanent contract, often bullying Brian in an attempt to force him to provide her with one. He patiently explained that it was not his place to award such a contract, but that Lambeth HR was responsible and, furthermore, the post would have to be advertised in accordance with Lambeth’s policies and procedures.
Brian Pead’s counselling course was gathering apace and on 2 May 2006 he commenced a placement at Whitefield School in Barnet, where he worked under the supervision of Amanda Glass.
On 13 May 2006, Brian attended a play at the White Bear Theatre in Kennington, in which the supply teacher of English at the OLCVS, Annabel Field, was acting in the role of Lizzie Price in The Horse Dealer’s Daughter.
Brian attended with his Turkish lover, Ipek Yўlmaz. This innocent Saturday evening attendance at a play was to feature in the not-too-distant future.
On 18 May 2006, Alicia Reynolds of Lambeth Human Resources prepared form LPS4 (serial number 42144) upon instructions from Barry Gilhooly. The purpose of this form was to give Brian a one-year contract to commence on 1 September 2006 and to finish on 31 August 2007. Lambeth required Gilhooly to provide reasons for this extension to the contract:
“...Brian is a valuable member of staff who has contributed effectively to the service we provide in the Children and Young People’s Service – Inclusion...”
On 19 May 2006, Brian’s grand-son, Joseph Birch was born. Life was good. Brian now had three grand-children by his daughter, Sorrel. He was Head of a thriving pupil referral unit and he was embarking upon plans for a complete refurbishment of his house in Sidcup where he lived alone by choice. He was a member of a gym, Chairman of the Friends of Scadbury (a local site of special scientific interest), he had a wide circle of friends and he attended self-development lectures at Inner Space on a weekly basis. And, of course, he was in the process of qualifying as a counsellor.
Brian Pead is a people-watcher. He observes whomever a person draws into his or her world because this tells him something about the person’s character and personality. He saw whom this person calling herself ‘Murray’ drew in, and it was usually a woman called Anya Hiley, who was a Connexions advisor and who worked on the third floor of the Old Library Centre.
In June 2006, Anya Hiley emailed her line manager about Brian Pead, claiming that she was ‘concerned’ that he had “lengthy one-to-one meetings with ‘attractive’ female pupils.” In the context of the Unit, with such vulnerable pupils, it was necessary for Brian – as both Head Teacher and free counsellor – to engage in conversations with these pupils. In reality, he had numerous conversations with male pupils too, but Anya Hiley apparently failed to notice these. Furthermore, if she was doing her job on the third floor of the building, how could she possibly know how many conversations the Head had with pupils of either gender? Was she timing the conversations? Why would she describe the females as ‘attractive’?
The email was sent directly from Hiley’s line manager (Glenice Lake) to Phyllis Dunipace, the Executive Director of Lambeth Children and Young People’s Service.
Barry Gilhooly became involved and – without informing Brian – met secretly with Anya Hiley and told her that if she had no hard evidence, he would not be able to act.
No pupil or parent was ever interviewed. No member of staff ever complained about Brian Pead – this incident had come from a Connexions Adviser working two floors above the OLCVS.
On 20 July 2006 Gilhooly signed off Form LPS4 extending Brian’s contract to a full year. This was a month after the Hiley malicious email.
In July 2006, the OLCVS moved to the Redfearn Centre in Kennington Lane, Vauxhall and changed its name to the Open Learning Centre for Vocational Studies (retaining the acronym OLCVS).
Like the Old Library Centre, the Redfearn Centre was also a community centre, with CCTV omnipresent and a reception area where every visitor signed in and out. The centre was used by many local groups which meant that the working hours available to staff of the OLCVS were from 7am until 5pm only.
Between September and November 2006, the relationship between Brian and Maryn Murray became increasingly strained.
On Saturday 28 October 2006 at 08:58, Brian Pead sat at a computer in his home and created a Word document which he called “MarynMurray.doc”.
This document was designed to create order at the OLCVS; its aftermath was to lay the foundations for chaos in Brian’s life lasting more than seven years.
In this document Brian listed eleven separate complaints about the South African. Complaint number five read:
“…Incident 5 – her contract
Became quite nasty about this. In July 2006 threatened legal action over it. Adopted a bullying tone.
Became entrenched, despite my various attempts to reframe the process. Refused to listen to the change in circumstances regarding the legality of advertising the post. Would not listen to the fact that all candidates would be considered – despite Duane Maddison readily accepting this fact, and despite this fact being minuted in a staff meeting in July…”
Complaint eleven was about a black male pupil claiming that Murray was being racist towards him and other black male pupils.
Although having created this document on 28 October, Brian did not immediately send it to his line manager, Barry Gilhooly, because he was continuing to gather information about Murray. He decided, instead, to focus on the bullying aspect of his complaints against Murray and on Sunday 5 November 2006, Brian sent Rosa Vaz (of Lambeth Human Resources) an email in which he stated that he was being bullied by Maryn Murray, especially with regard to a contract. He also stated in the email that Murray had claimed to be keeping a dossier on him. Brian specifically sought the intervention of Human Resources as he was making an official complaint.
He never received a reply to this email. Things began to move fast.
On Wednesday 8 November 2006, Brian was approached by three young, black Portuguese-speaking pupils named Mauro Brito, Jose Mario Pontes Centeio and Miguel Neves, who asked to speak with him in his office. He invited them in and asked if they minded if Sandra Roach (Brian’s PA) joined them. They did not object.
They said that throughout this term she had been racist towards them all by calling them ‘stupid’ in front of the whole class. The young men said that she also made fun of them and mocked them if they got an answer wrong. They added that she never did this if a white boy got an answer wrong and certainly not if a white girl did.
They claimed that “...she seems to like the white girls and shows favouritism towards them by smiling a lot and she always spends more time with female pupils. She seems to flirt with the girls and praises them a lot and never praises us even though we work very hard in her lessons because we actually like ICT and Art and want to do well in these subjects but she never seems to respect us at all...”
The young men said that Murray “...tries to make us feel small in front of the whole class...” and that “...she has made us feel bad about ourselves because we are black...”
Brian made notes, and read out the notes to the young men. A set of complaints against Murray was agreed in writing. Murray had racially abused the young men in respect of her attitude towards them – asking them “Are you stupid? Can’t you understand what I’m saying?” Calling them ‘stupid’ was also wholly unacceptable.
Brian would never support such an attitude in his Unit or in his life. He had worked hard to create a happy Unit based on mutual respect and he would not tolerate such language and attitudes towards any pupil, let alone these three decent young men.
After signing statements outlining the racial abuse, the pupils left the office content in the knowledge that they had been listened to and content that their complaints had been officially logged in writing.
A day later, on Thursday 9 November 2006, a young female pupil asked to speak with Brian in his office.
Although overlooked entirely by Lilian Baylis School and therefore not a ‘private area’, Brian’s office was known by the pupils to be a safe sanctuary. Pupils would often ask to speak with him on personal matters. Pregnancies, drugs, sexually transmitted diseases, bereavement, relationship difficulties and many other issues were discussed in the safety of his office.
Gemma Mandry was an impressive 14-year-old with a penchant for Maths. She had a voracious appetite for Maths and wanted Brian to set her reams of homework – which she always completed. She was a spirited young woman, who had already seen a lot of life and was ‘street-wise’. She had a number of personal issues which she felt safe enough to share with her Head teacher. For reasons of confidentiality, it is not possible to discuss the main issues spoken about between Brian and Gemma.
However, what can be put into the public domain is that Gemma Mandry made extremely serious complaints against Murray.
Mandry told Brian that Murray had offered her £50 worth of gym vouchers if she would go to the gym with her after school hours. This was clearly a very serious allegation on at least three counts:
(i) it showed that Murray was making improper suggestions towards Mandry to meet her after school hours
(ii) it showed that Murray had offered Mandry a bribe
(iii) it demonstrated that Murray was grooming young women.
Again, Brian logged these allegations and asked Mandry to sign a statement against Murray, which she did.
Thus he had significant evidence against Maryn Murray of a racist, bullying and sexual nature. However, a bad situation became even worse.
Brian Pead sent Barry Gilhooly the document entitled ‘Maryn Murray’ (copied to Human Resources) in which he outlined all of his concerns. Gilhooly failed to respond. Human Resources failed to respond.
A bad situation was escalating. On Tuesday 14 November 2006 another female student asked to speak with Brian. Her name was Ashleigh Mills. She was a blonde-haired fifteen-year-old, who was very good at English. Her home life was unsettled, and at this period in her life she was extremely vulnerable.
She told Brian that Murray had made improper suggestions towards her, asking her to accompany her on shopping expeditions and to visit her flat alone.
Again Brian noted these allegations and asked Ashleigh to sign a statement, which she did.
Now that he had further damning evidence against Murray, he was duty-bound to take action and report it to his line manager, Barry Gilhooly.
Thus Brian called Gilhooly and said that he needed to meet with him urgently in his office.
Brian laid out all of the salient facts before Gilhooly, who instructed him to call Murray’s agency and tell them that she was no longer needed at the Unit. Gilhooly said that he would inform “...all the appropriate authorities…” Brian took this to mean the police, the General Teaching Council and the Independent Safeguarding Authority.
With Murray dismissed, the atmosphere at the OLCVS became instantly lighter. Brian knew that he could now forge ahead with leading the Unit to greater success. In its first year – from a standing start – pupil attendance was 82% and every pupil left the Unit with at least one nationally-recognised certificate. Murray aside, the atmosphere was positive and Brian’s leadership was strong, fair and empowering. No complaints had ever been made against him by any pupils, parents or members of staff.
Yet within three weeks, a shocking turn of events occurred which precipitated two spells in prison, the loss of his career, his house, his family and his reputation.
Friday 8 December 2006 had started out just like any other day at the OLCVS in Vauxhall.
But it was to end in dramatic fashion.
Brian Pead instinctively knew something was wrong when – around 2pm – he saw Barry Gilhooly and Rosa Vaz enter the Redfearn Centre. He could not have predicted the events that were about to unfold.
Gilhooly asked to meet with Brian in his office. With Rosa Vaz in attendance, Brian thought that the reason for the visit must be something to do with the dismissal of Maryn Murray for her racism towards young black males and for her sexual grooming of young females. He had heard nothing back from Gilhooly since providing his line manager with reports on Murray’s conduct. He entertained fleeting thoughts that Gilhooly had come to tell him about the ways that Lambeth were going to reprimand Murray and report her to the police and various teaching authorities and to ensure that her behaviour would be recorded on her CRB checks and that she would be added to List 99.
But the reality of the situation was nothing like that at all.
Gilhooly opened: “Brian, you’re suspended.”
Brian’s normal fighting instincts took over. “What do you mean, I’m suspended?”
“We can’t tell you why.”
“What do you mean, you can’t tell me why? I have a right to know. You can’t legally suspend me without telling me why. I want to know why.”
“We’ll put the reasons for your suspension in a letter and send it to your home.”
“That’s not good enough. I want to know why I’m being suspended or I’m going nowhere.”
Brian look at Vaz. She sat, hands on her knees, a picture of timidity. She looked as though she would rather be anywhere in the world at that moment than in this office in Vauxhall.
Gilhooly raised his game. “If you don’t leave now, we have the authority to call the police.”
“The police? You can’t be serious,” retorted the Headteacher.
“Brian, gather together your immediate belongings and leave with us. You’ll receive a letter explaining the reasons for your suspension, but some very serious allegations have been made against you.”
“Serious allegations? By whom?” demanded Pead.
“We’re not at liberty to say,” lied the blank Gilhooly.
Gilhooly gave Brian a letter from Lambeth entitled Suspension from Work. This letter did not include a single reason for the suspension.
In doing his job – blowing the whistle on unsavoury activity by Murray – Brian Pead found himself suspended.
And the more he fought this injustice, the more injustice followed him like a bad smell.
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