Head teacher's corruption claim dismissed

A former head teacher already jailed for harassing a trainee has lost his case for unfair dismissal brought against his former employer.

Gregory Hill took Eastern Multi Academy Trust to an employment tribunal after he lost his job at Howard Junior School in King's Lynn, Norfolk, in 2024.

He had been suspended and then sacked after being arrested at the school for harassing a 23-year-old trainee. He was later found guilty and sentenced to 20 weeks in prison.

Hill claimed trust officials were "biased and corrupt", but an employment judge found there was no evidence.

In a judgement published this week, the judge called his claims a "conspiracy theory" concocted by him.

The former head teacher, who in April was banned from managing schools by the Department for Education, also claimed he was discriminated against for an undisclosed disability, but this was withdrawn.

Hill, of Valley Way, Fakenham, worked at the school as a head teacher from 2007.

But in March 2023, he was arrested at the school and later charged with resisting arrest and harassment without violence and was the subject of a stalking order.

It followed complaints by a trainee teacher that he made romantic advances towards her and did not stop despite being asked to.

He went off sick after his arrest and was later sacked for gross misconduct and safeguarding concerns in 2024.

Hill was jailed later that year for making the unwanted advances over an 11-month period.

He was also jailed in January 2025 for six months for breaching a stalking protection order, banning him from posting photographs of her on social media.

In his unfair dismissal case, the former teacher complained that the 12 witnesses who spoke against him were anonymous.

He also believed the decision to sack him was "predetermined" and that the proceedings against him took place when he was "too unwell".

Employment judge Kevin Jeffrey Palmer said Hill "studiously avoided answering questions" during a cross-examination by the trust's lawyers and "doubted the authenticity" of documents submitted to the court.

Hill "took great exception to being cross-examined", the judge noted, to such an extent that he refused to attend the third day of the hearing.

Ultimately, the case was dismissed due to a lack of evidence.

Palmer ruled the trust undertook an "extensive investigation" into the former head teacher's conduct and that all the correct procedures were followed.

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