A HAMPSHIRE teacher who posed as a 14-year-old boy “apparently available for sexual activity” in an Internet chat room has been cleared to continue teaching.

Simon King was found guilty of “unacceptable professional conduct” by the General Teaching Council for England (GTCE), but a disciplinary panel decided not to strike him off the teaching register.

The professional conduct committee ruled that the then science teacher at The Mountbatten School in Romsey had “knowingly engaged in inappropriate Internet communications of a sexual nature with another individual”.

But after clearing Mr King of sending inappropriate images of teenage boys to another individual and neglecting his duty as a teacher to safeguard children and young people, the panel issued him with a formal reprimand.

Committee chairman Richard Hornsby said: “To role-play in this context, as a 14-year-old boy apparently available for sexual activity, and bearing in mind that this was also the age of the children you taught, would be regarded by most people as inappropriate.

“We also regard it as inappropriate.

Your behaviour threatened public trust and confidence in the profession.”

But he said there was no suggestion that Mr King, who was employed at the Whitenap Lane school between August 2007 and August 2010, had acted inappropriately towards pupils there, or that he was breaking any school rules.

Mr Hornsby told him: “There was no evidence that what you did had any effect on children under your supervision.

We had no evidence that what you did was contrary to any school policy, or to your contract. Neither were we told of any training which would have made clear to you that you were required to report yourself in these circumstances for safeguarding purposes.”

The Metropolitan Police had investigated Mr King following the chat-room discussions, which happened over two days during the 2009 school summer holidays while he was using his home computer.

Officers said nothing else of concern had been found on the computer.

The Mountbatten School said that Mr King stopped teaching at the school in March 2010, six months before his employment ended, but refused to say whether he had been suspended in that time, or if he was later fired or resigned.

In evidence to the committee, head teacher Heather McIlroy said that before this issue arose there had been no concerns relating to child protection, nor any disciplinary issues, and that Mr King had been a “valued, popular and respected member of staff”.

In a statement, a school spokesman said: “We would like to assure parents that at no stage were the allegations linked to the school or any students or former students.”

The reprimand will remain on the teaching register for two years.