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Head teacher took security measures after harassment by pupil's parent

Julie Thomas
Julie Thomas Julie Thomas

A HEAD teacher has said she keeps a personal protection device after being harassed by a pupil's father for more than a year.

Julie Thomas, principal of Clandeboye PS in Bangor, also took security measures at her home.

Father-of-two Gerard Knight (38) of Cayman Drive in Bangor, Co Down, has received a suspended jail sentence.

He contested the harassment charge, but a judge at Ards Magistrates' Court said the prosecution case was "the easiest I have come across in terms of credibility".

The judge also imposed a restraining order on Knight.

The campaign of harassment ran from April 2016 until June 2017.

Ms Thomas had told the court she was verbally abused by Knight, who also took photos of her outside school and showed up outside her home.

Problems began after governors temporarily banned Knight from school premises, the court was told. This ban followed allegations he had approached a pupil and "pinned the child to a wall' after an incident involving his son.

Later, after one of Knight's children was suspended, he became verbally aggressive in a confrontation witnessed by staff.

The court was also told that one Saturday morning, Knight cycled along Ms Thomas's street and stopped outside her house.

"He was increasingly aggressive, and would be shouting at me saying I wasn't fit to run a school, that women shouldn't be running schools and that the principal should be a man," Ms Thomas told the BBC.

"This gentleman was outside my house. He was taking pictures of myself, my car registration and posting them on social media along with allegations which were untrue.

"I have taken security measures at my home to protect myself and my family and I will continue to follow the advice I was given by the police about my personal safety."