A Northland primary school teacher who admitted exporting and possessing child sexual exploitation images has had his teaching registration cancelled.

Kirk Broadfoot, a former Ngunguru Primary School teacher, pleaded guilty to seven charges of knowingly exporting objectionable publications from New Zealand and one charge of possession of an objectionable publication. On June 7 last year, Judge Greg Davis sentenced him to 10 months’ home detention.

The conviction was brought to the attention of the Teaching Council of New Zealand, which said its priority was to protect children and young people.

In accordance with the law, the council cancelled Broadfoot’s teaching registration, for which a hearing was not required.

The council told the Advocate the law requires mandatory reporting by a teacher’s employer about any suspected serious misconduct by a teacher.

“Also, if there are immediate concerns for the safety of children and young people and the reputation of the teaching profession, we can seek a voluntary agreement with the teacher to stop teaching until the matter has been fully investigated and resolved.”

The council said this was known as ‘Undertaking Not to Teach’, which appears as an annotation next to the teacher’s name in the public register of teachers available on its website.

“Mr Broadfoot signed an Undertaking Not to Teach which remained in place until his registration was cancelled in June 2022.”

Broadfoot was charged for offending between July 31, 2021 and August 13, 2021, when he uploaded and thus exported 37 publications depicting child sexual exploitation material to an overseas social media platform.

An eighth charge for possession related to when Broadfoot was found on September 23, 2021 to be in possession of at least 94 objectionable child sexual exploitation material publications which he had obtained.

The judge said it was unnecessary to recount the full details of the examples of publications that Broadfoot uploaded and was found to possess.

“However, regarding the categories of the UK Sentencing Guidelines which are used as a guide, there were 37 images exported by Broadfoot, and 94 found in his possession ranging across Category A (images involving penetrative sexual activity or involving sexual activity with an animal, or sadism); Category B (images involving non-penetrative sex); and Category C (indecent images not falling within categories A or B).”

- Mike Dinsdale