A TEACHER who had sex with his pupil wants to return to the classroom – despite still dating his former student.

Ross Spittal, 32, was caught having an affair with the 18-year-old schoolgirl in 2019 after his girlfriend at the time found naked pictures of her on his phone.

The former maths teacher had sex with the pupil form Inveralmond Community High School in West Lothian, on at least two occasions.

Kim Smyth, 33, found more than 800 emails between the pair on their shared computer – which included the sexual images.

Spittal, from Renfrewshire, Scotland, has told a hearing that he is still in a relationship with her, despite admitting that it was “totally inappropriate.”

At a hearing in front of the General Teaching Council for Scotland GTCS today heard that Spittall was “ashamed” of his actions.

But despite this he believes he should return to teaching and told the panel how he has now taken new measures when making decisions in his life.

Spittal, now a delivery courier, said: “I think about it everyday while I’m sitting in my van about where I could be if I hadn’t made stupid mistakes.

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"I made decisions and choices I made in a five to six week period I am ashamed and embarrassed of.

"I use a traffic light system. Stop, thought and action. I stop and process what is going on around me, I then think and assess my options before proceeding with my choice.

"I should have used it after the kiss had happened. My professionalism was called into place, it won’t happen again, I admit all of the allegations.”

Spittal had taught Pupil A for five years from 2014 until 2019 when she was a pupil in his advanced higher maths class

It was on the online teaching system Glow that Spittal and Pupil A exchanged thousands of messages with his student sending him a naked picture.

He added: “I’d built strong relationships, people often commented on my laid back attitude and teaching style, it was not uncommon for me to reply to pupil’s questions at 11pm at night.

“It was totally inappropriate, I did not stop to think, I should have ignored the initial messages, I should not have acknowledged the message and I should have spoken firstly to a senior member of staff and then Miss A.

“I did not want to make a big fuss as it was near the end of her time at school, she had a few weeks left.

“I was embarrassed, she had made a daft comment in front of my girlfriend and I should have shut that down straight away. Pupil A took it too far.”

Kim Smyth gave evidence to the teaching regulator and detailed how he first found out about her ex-boyfriend's affair.

She said: "He was messaging the pupil using Glow at late times. The chat and banter you’d expect with a friend.

"One Saturday night at about 2am, me and Ross were sitting in drinking and he kept looking at his phone.

“He was messaging Pupil A on Glow. I thought it was extremely odd behaviour.

"The day I came across the emails on our laptop, a message popped up at the bottom of the screen, she was emailing him.

“When I opened the conversation it was happening there and then, they were planning on meeting up.

“I found 800 emails between the two dating back to early 2019. There were naked pictures of Pupil A.

“I was literally seeing naked photos of her as I was speaking to him on the phone.

"He asked me not to tell the police or the school.”

Smyth told the council one email read: “Kim is at work, you can come over.”

The hearing continues.

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