Teacher guilty of student assault

A TEACHER who grabbed a pupil by his collar and pushed him to the floor has been found guilty of assault.

Mark Biglin (48), of East Bawtry Road, was found guilty following a one-day trial at Sheffield Magistrates’ Court.

Biglin, a former graphics teacher at Oakwood High School, was suspended after the assault in September 2015 and is no longer working at the school.

The court heard Biglin grabbed the then-Year 7 pupil by the scruff of his collar and pushed him to the floor on an engineering corridor after becoming angry at the boy, who was playing about with a friend.

Biglin denied the assault but two other pupils, who gave evidence in court, verified the assault and one of the witnesses reported it to the headteacher immediately afterwards.

All the pupils concerned in this case cannot be identified for legal reasons.

The victim told the court that near the end of the school day he and his friend were playing about on a corridor pushing and shoving each other.

The victim pushed his friend into Biglin’s classroom door and the boy fell into the room.

The two young pupils then continued down the corridor, the court was told, but Biglin shouted the victim back and told him off for his behaviour.

The boy said Biglin grabbed him by his collar at the front of his shirt with both his hands and shouted angrily at him.

The boy added: “I felt something on my neck and felt a pinch.”

Biglin shouted at the boy: “How do you like it when someone does it to you?”

The victim added: “Then he pushed me and I landed on the floor like I was sitting down.

“Then I said ‘sorry’ to the teacher because I had pushed my friend.”

The victim said his bottom was hurting after the assault and he went home and told his mum what had happened.

His upset mother gave her son a paracetamol, took pictures of his bruises on his thigh and bottom and went back to the high school to complain to the deputy headteacher.

The mother than called the police herself.

Biglin claimed in court he had only touched the boy’s collar and he had fallen to the floor by himself.

Mr Mick Clarke, defending, said Biglin had shouted to the boy that people in his engineering classroom could have been working with knives, which is why it had been dangerous to burst through the door.

One of the young witnesses, who did not know the victim, verified that Biglin stated this but added the teacher grabbed the pupil and pushed him down on the floor.

The witness added: “Then me and my friend went to tell the headmaster everything.”

The victim did not cry but looked in shock, the witness added.

Biglin was found guilty by magistrates and ordered to pay a £200 fine, £100 compensation, £100 costs and £20 victim surcharge.

The boy’s mother told the Advertiser after the trial that she and her son had been left very upset by the incident.

The mother said: “I don’t touch my child, so I don’t expect a teacher to touch my child.”

School staff told the mother although they had CCTV cameras, they were not working when the incident occurred.

“I thought they were lying — how can cameras not work in a school?” she added.

The mother claimed her son was targeted by other teachers after the assault.

“The teachers were blaming things on him, I was asking for proof but they would just say we had to trust them,” the mother said.

“But how can I trust them, he’s my child and I know the extent he would go to.”

The mum said her son became frustrated, would return home grumpy and was like a different child.

She felt the fine imposed on Biglin was not large enough but was pleased with the verdict.

“My son is really happy he’s been listened to,” she added.

“But I’ve not had any apology from the school.”

Oakwood High School declined to comment.