Children at risk

I must express my disquiet over the report I read on The Times (April 23) about a suspended jail sentence given to a teacher for sending sexually-explicit text messages to 13- and 14-year-old pupils.

The report mentions that the magistrate ordered that the man's teaching warrant be withdrawn and that he "keeps away from schools and institutions that have minors in attendance".

Although I do not know the details of the case, as a psychiatrist, I can categorically say that he shows signs that he is sexually- attracted to children and at 37 years of age this is now not just a momentary lapse but a lifelong tendency called paedophilia. Such people tend to "groom" children, meaning that they try and win the confidence of children in order to gain close contact with them before getting them to have sex with him.

Grooming can involve contacting children through the internet and SMS messaging but it can also involve befriending parents or children's clubs so that they can then be trusted to take children out for walks or swims, to do baby-sitting, private lessons, etc. The court order in his case focuses only on schools and is inadequate to control all the other ways this man could be a risk to others. In the UK or Australia he would have no right of anonymity and releasing his name often brings about other reports of inappropriate behaviour from other parents or victims.

At the very least, his probation conditions should have prohibited all unsupervised contact with children, having psychiatrists, social workers and probation officers monitor his whereabouts.

If the state allows this man to remain anonymous and not supervised properly, then it will have some responsibility in the tragedies which could follow.