A secondary school sex education teacher has been accused of undermining his profession by living a double life as a porn star and stripper.
Benedict Garrett, 31, is facing a tribunal, accused of raking in cash under the alias ‘Johnny Anglais’.
He also owned a website containing details of his work as a stripper, which could be freely viewed by pupils, the disciplinary hearing was told.
On his site, the former teacher who continues to work as a stripper, could be seen scantily clad and dressed as a fireman.
Alongside the pictures, he claims to be ‘a man with a mission’ – to ‘unashamedly demonstrate the art of pleasure in the realms of fitness, sex and entertainment.’
He also describes how he has taught ‘young people to be open-minded, respectful, tolerant of others’ for the past four years.
The General Teaching Council panel in Birmingham heard how Garrett ‘undertook work of a pornographic nature’ and ‘performed as a stripper in public place’ while employed by at Beal High School, in Ilford, Essex, between January 1 2008 and July 16 2010.
The tribunal was told how the former head of Personal, Social, Health and Economic education, also left inappropriate voicemail messages on the associate head teacher’s telephone in July last year.
He was accused further of texting, emailing and using Facebook to communicate with Year 10 students.
Garrett, who represented himself at the hearing, told the panel how he would speak openly with students – some as young as 11 or 12 – about sexual matters.
“I was unembarrassed to talk about anything,” he said. “I said ‘if you ask me in an appropriate manner I will tell you.”
Giving an example of an exchange with a Year 7 pupil, he added: “The student asked ‘sir, what’s a vibrator?’ ‘I told them what it was.”
Garrett put forward his case for 30 minutes, arguing that teachers should be able to keep their professional and private lives separate.
“They may go out and get drunk off their faces,” he said. “They are human and if they are doing it and it is legal that is their choice.”
Insisting that they were obliged to live up to what he believes to be outdated standards, he added: “I believe that if the General Teaching Council was to agree that what I did undermines public trust and confidence in the teaching profession, I believe that this is a symptom of what I call an
immature national attitude to sex and viewing sex as a legitimate form of enjoyment and entertainment.”
And he insisted that schools should prepare children for the “real world” and adapt to the increasing availability of pornography.
Outside the hearing Mr Garrett, dressed in a dark suit and glasses, defended his work as a stripper and insisted he had not come to contest some of the claims made against him.
He hit out at the British attitude towards sex, saying: “We have one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the EU, and the reason is that we are just not open about sex.
“The habit is to shut it off and not talk about it. We have to prepare our students for the real world. Being naked is the most natural thing in the world. I don’t see it as a damaging thing.
“Would I be embarrassed if a parent or student saw me naked in one of my videos? ‘It might put them off having sex if they saw me.”
While he admitted to overstepping the boundaries by making Facebook contact with students, he said there was no evidence to suggest this was of a “sexual or romantic” nature.
Garrett has previously admitted working as a hard-core porn star before qualifying as a teacher.
His dual identity was rumbled by pupils before he was suspended last July.
