Teacher struck off for sexual misconduct with children - The Jewish Chronicle

A former teacher at Charedi schools in Salford has been banned from the profession after the Teaching Regulation Agency found him guilty of serious sexual misconduct with two children.

A disciplinary panel said that Yankel Shepherd had touched, kissed and engaged in sexual activity on one or more occasions with a child at a Jewish community centre during the 1980s.

He also kissed and hugged another boy when he was working at a teacher at one of the schools.

Mr Shepherd, who did not attend the hearing, has denied the allegations and told the panel he had left the education sector.

In its published decision, the panel found him responsible “for the most serious degree of sexual misconduct, having abused his position as a teacher to exploit Pupil X, a pupil he knew to be vulnerable, and having engaged in sexual acts with Child A when he was a child”.

In his evidence, Child A, who is now an adult, described meeting Mr Shepherd, who was helping to run activities for youth at a Jewish community centre, on Sunday afternoons over a period of 12 to 18 months from the age of 12.

He recalled sitting on Mr Shepherd’s lap and being touched on his thighs and groin. Within a few months, Mr Shepherd had begun unzipping him and fondling his genitals. Mr Shepherd would regularly lie on top of him and masturbate.

He said he had felt pressured and confused because he did not know anything about sex.

After a while, Child A began to have some inkling that something was wrong and stopped going to the community centre. But he continued to see Mr Shepherd in synagogue who, he said, took him upstairs alone to the ladies’ gallery to study religious texts and unzipped Child A’s trousers.

In 2012, Mr Shepherd, who was working at the Talmud Torah Chinch N'Orim school in Salford, was arrested after Child A made allegations to the police but the investigation ended in 2013 when Child A decided not to give evidence against him.

The panel reported that a police statement given by a social worker who had visited Mr Shepherd in 2012 said that he had “admitted that there had been some incidents with a boy when he lived in London. He said he deeply regrets it and he is remorseful. He said he was young and confused.”

Mr Shepherd left the school early in 2013 and later that year joined another, Talmud Torah Yetev Lev in Salford. From 2014 to 2018 he was also a learning assistant and helped with special needs at the Oholei Yosef Yitzchok Lubavitch School in Salford.

In October 2018, he was suspended from Yetev Lev after allegations that he had behaved inappropriately towards Pupil X while working at Oholei Yosef Yitzchok, and subsequently resigned. In 2019, the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to prosecute him.

Although Pupil X did not appear at the hearing, the panel watched video evidence he had given to the police.

“Although it was evident to the panel that Pupil X’s special educational needs caused him difficulties in communicating what had happened, the panel found his evidence to be credible and truthful in relation to the facts alleged that Mr Shepherd had kissed him, hugged him and stroked his face.

“During the interview, Pupil X was particularly able to articulate the relief he felt after Mr Shepherd’s contact stopped.”

Both Child A and Pupil X, the panel said, were “individuals who were vulnerable and who Mr Shepherd managed to have access to on a one to one basis. Mr Shepherd may well have formed the view that neither child was likely to report the behaviour, or that they would be unlikely to be believed, if they had."