Maths teacher who hacked colleague’s phone to find intimate video banned
The woman started ‘freaking out’ when she ‘could see skin’ in an unsent WhatsApp video.
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Your support makes all the difference.A primary school maths teacher who hacked into a colleague’s phone and found an intimate video of her before trying to send it to himself on WhatsApp has been banned from teaching.
Brendon Fallows, 37, took the phone out of the woman’s coat pocket and guessed her password so he could look through her photos and videos, a Teaching Regulation Agency panel was told.
When she came back to her phone, the junior female teacher started “freaking out” when she “could see skin” in an unsent video that “looked like it was one of hers”, the panel heard.
Mr Fallows, who “had some attraction to the woman”, was identified as the culprit when she recognised his profile picture on the WhatsApp account the video had failed to send to.
It is clear that (he) violated the trust and privacy of the victim, which will have caused a staggering amount of upset, anger and mistrust, as well as breaking the sense of safety in the workplace
The teacher, who had been working at the school for 10 years, admitted the allegations, confessing that he “allowed curiosity to be overtaken by adrenaline”.
The virtual misconduct meeting heard he started working at Lady Bay Primary School near Nottingham in 2013 as a class teacher and maths lead.
In October 2023, Mr Fallows and the female teacher, who was not named by the panel, were sitting in the school’s office before she went to teach Mr Fallows’ class at 2.15pm, leaving her phone in her coat pocket on the back of a chair.
When she next looked at the phone at 5.15pm, she noticed a WhatsApp message had been sent to a number she did not recognise.
At first, she thought it was a mistake and that maybe she had sat on her phone, the panel heard, but she started “freaking out” after realising the message was a video that had failed to send.
The video looked like it was one of hers as “she could see skin”, and was something that she would not want people to see, so she “deleted it quickly,” the panel was told.
The woman could see the WhatsApp profile picture in the chat, which looked like Mr Fallows, but she was unsure because it looked like “quite an old picture,” the panel heard.
Admitting what he had done, Mr Fallows told the panel it was clear to see the phone hanging from her coat before he took it, but said he “did not rummage or search”.
The maths teacher said he used the woman’s Instagram account to find her date of birth, which he then used to guess her phone password, the panel heard.
Mr Fallows said he “just looked at photos and videos and that there was a thumbnail of a video on her phone which he tried to send to himself”, the panel was told.
The panel noted that the “only explanation given for Mr Fallows’ behaviour was that he had some attraction to the woman”, and that his “personal and professional circumstances had impacted on his behaviour”.
Explaining his actions, the teacher said he “allowed curiosity to be overtaken by adrenaline and complete lack of judgement or awareness of impact and consequence”.
The panel heard he was “aware of the deep impact (his) behaviour has had and will be likely to continue to have on the victim of (his) actions, as well as the school.
“It is clear that (he) violated the trust and privacy of the victim, which will have caused a staggering amount of upset, anger and mistrust, as well as breaking the sense of safety in the workplace.”
The panel concluded that Mr Fallows’ behaviour amounted to unacceptable professional conduct, and made a recommendation to the Secretary of State that he be barred from teaching with a review period of two years.