Ex-Furness Academy teacher admits child sex offences

David Goodwin, who worked at Furness Academy in Barrow, pleaded guilty to attempting to sexually communicate with a child.

The 38-year-old admitted that he sent a number of messages to an account presenting as a 12-year-old girl in April this year.

He was employed as a teacher at the school at the time.

Prosecutors said he asked the girl to 'strip naked' and send images of herself to him.

Appearing at Preston Crown Court, Goodwin also admitted attempting to cause a child to look at an image of sexual activity, namely him performing a sex act on himself.

He denied a charge of attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity.

The Crown Prosecution Service is expected to make a decision on whether or not to let the matter lie on file when he is sentenced in December.

That means the charge could be not followed through on or a trial date could be set down to pursue it further.

At an earlier hearing before South Cumbria Magistrates' Court, prosecutors said Goodwin told police had been sending messages to a number of social media accounts at the time to 'relieve his boredom'.

They said in message sent via social media, he had sent explicit images of himself to the decoy account.

Goodwin, of Broughton Road in Dalton, is due to be sentenced at the crown court on December 15.

Goodwin was employed at the secondary school until May 31.

After Goodwin's first appearance in court, Simon Laheney, Furness Academy head and chief executive, said: “I can confirm that David Goodwin was employed by Furness Academy until 31 May 2021.

"It is not appropriate for the school to make any comments relating to an ongoing court matter and the school must respect the obligations imposed by data protection legislation.

"The school takes the safeguarding of its students very seriously and can confirm that all regulatory and statutory obligations have been fulfilled and complied with proactively, comprehensively and consistently.”