Former Head Teacher Prohibited from Profession Following Explicit Messages to Undercover Officer

Matthew Coombs, 52, a former head teacher, has been permanently barred from the teaching profession. This action follows his transmission of explicit messages and images to an undercover police officer who was impersonating a teenage boy. Coombs engaged with the decoy profile on the Grindr social media platform during his tenure at the Hartest Church of England Primary School in Suffolk. Even after receiving information that the individual was 14 years old, Coombs made arrangements to encounter the fabricated teenager at Cineworld in Ipswich. He was subsequently apprehended at his residence on Wetherden Road, Elmswell. The Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) imposed an indefinite prohibition on his teaching, occurring two years subsequent to his admission of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child. It was noted that there was no indication Coombs had targeted any students at his school. Coombs, whose tenure as head teacher at the school commenced in January 2017, exchanged messages with the account across a 10-day span, specifically from February 10 to February 20, 2020. However, without Coombs’ knowledge, he was in fact communicating with an undercover officer, who was sanctioned to interact with individuals potentially exhibiting a sexual interest in children. Subsequent to his arrest on February 20, 2020, Coombs was found guilty at Ipswich Magistrates’ Court on December 16, 2022, following his admission of the offence. On May 15, 2023, he received a sentence of a two-year community order at Ipswich Crown Court, and a five-year sexual harm prevention order was issued. Additionally, he was mandated to register on the sex offenders’ register for a duration of five years. Following deliberations on whether to prohibit Coombs from teaching, the TRA stated that it did not concur with his explanation that he had been “naïve” and “incredibly stupid”. Furthermore, the panel indicated that it did not endorse his assertion of being unaware that the individual was a child, nor did it consider the consumption of excessive alcohol as a justification for his conduct. Having acknowledged concerns within the report “about the risk of repetition” should Coombs continue in the profession, the TRA determined that he would be permanently disallowed from teaching.