Jonathan Nwokpor
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After it was alleged that a Ghanaian teacher in the UK had smuggled a 14-year-old African child into the country to work as her “slave,” the teacher was barred from teaching for life.
Ernestina Quainoo, 53, was removed from the teaching register for misrepresenting to employers about her conviction for child trafficking in 2019.
Mail Online claims that information about her criminal history was only discovered in December 2022 after one of her coworkers sent her supervisors a newspaper article about her terrifying past.
Mrs. Quainoo, who immigrated to the UK from Ghana in 2004, and her husband Samuel brought the girl into the country illegally, promising her an education and employment upon arrival, were brought before a court in 2008.
Sadly, the girl was allegedly made to cook and clean the house for eighteen months in addition to babysitting their two little sons by the teacher and her 59-year-old husband.
Apart from once purchasing her T-shirts with the words “my other name is bitch” printed on them, it was found that the couple prevented the teenager from attending school and forming friends and dressed her in hand-me-downs.
The child told police and social workers that she never received compensation and that she had considered taking her own life.
She only managed to leave to receive medical attention after becoming ill.
A man with a history of false accounting convictions, Samuel Quainoo, claimed the child had performed a “voodoo” spell on him and his wife when the police arrived.
When Samuel Quainoo helped illegal immigrants enter the UK in 2008, he received an 18-month prison sentence and his wife received a suspended sentence.
Teaching watchdogs were informed that in May 2019, Mrs. Quainoo finally disclosed her conviction for a “immigration offence” during an interview for a class teaching position at Cherry Lane Primary School in West Drayton. Initially, she had denied having any convictions, but she later claimed this was an error she made in her rush to finish the application.
She was employed for a Key Stage One teaching position in July of that year, but in December 2022, the school received a tip about news items regarding the 2008 court case.
Ten days prior to Christmas, she was suspended after safeguarding concerns were raised, pending an investigation.
Although she quit in February, the Teaching Regulation Agency was notified and the disciplinary procedure was carried out by her previous employers.
People with spent convictions and warnings have the option to not have to reveal when applying for most employment thanks to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act.
Upon completing the application form, Mrs. Quainoo first marked “No” in the section pertaining to prior convictions.
However, Mrs. Quainoo corrected this in a later Disclosure Statement, stating that on July 11, 2008, she had been found guilty of “Assist Unlawful Immigration into an EU Member State.”
In the Disclosure Statement, Mrs. Quainoo stated that her conviction stemmed from the time she “helped and came along [to the UK] with a lady I lived with as a family member.”
The Disclosure Statement continued: ‘”wo years later, in June 2006, this came to the attention of the authorities and I was arrested.”
“Due to my inability to demonstrate that she [the individual] was a member [of] the family, I was charged with assisting her unlawful entry into the UK on 11th July, for which I pleaded guilty as I completely misunderstood the cultural differences that exist between the two countries.”
“As a result of this, I was given a two-year suspended sentence and required to undertake a ‘Women’s Programme’ for a few months”.
The presenting officer told the panel that the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act did not “protect” Mrs. Quainoo’s conviction as it was stated in the Disclosure Statement.
As a result, it was disclosed for the purposes of the application form, according to Sue Davies, the TRA hearing chair.
“Accordingly, the panel concluded that the information Mrs Quainoo provided on the application form when she answered ‘No’ to that question was not correct.”
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