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Guns teacher at Middleton college

25/ 9/2003

A TEACHER jailed after being found with guns hidden at his home has come to Middleton's Hopwood Hall College to resume his career.

Thomas Hosty worked at Harwood Park Primary School in Heywood before he was arrested last year. At Derby Crown Court in June 2002, he was jailed for 12 months.

After serving three-and-a-half months of his sentence, Mr Hosty is now teaching at Hopwood Hall College in Middleton.

At a hearing of the General Teaching Council for England (GTCE), held in Birmingham he was cleared for a return to teaching, but with conditions.

He must inform the GTCE of any new teaching job and that he informs any school he works at of any activities he is involved with relating to guns.

But the move has been slammed by the council's education chief on the council, Councillor Colin Lambert, who described Mr Hosty as "a man unfit to teach our children."

Councillor Lambert said: "I am astonished and disgusted at this move.

"Every governing body that employed him should be asked if the are happy to have this man, who has a firearms conviction, teaching children. The answer should be no."

Mr Hosty was arrested in November 2001 as part of a national police operation to track down guns not declared or handed in under strict new laws resulting from the Dunblane massacre seven years ago.

Thirteen guns, CS canisters, a stun gun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition were discovered at his home in Shaw, Oldham at the time.

Mr Hosty has been in the teaching profession for 31 years and at the GTCE hearing, the panel gave consideration to his "long standing contribution as a teacher" in issuing a temporary reregistration order.

In a statement, a spokesman for Hopwood Hall College, said: "Mr Hosty has been employed at Hopwood Hall College since last April. He is working as a workshop facilitator, teaching English and language skills.

"When Mr Hosty was employed by the college, he went through the usual procedures of application and interview. He was very open about his past conviction and did not wait for it to be revealed in the Criminal Records Bureau check.

"As a result of a wide range of checks and an in-depth interview, it was felt Mr Hosty was not a risk to the students in the college.

"The college's decision was validated by the decision of the General Teaching Council when they allowed him back into teaching."