Teacher used Google Translate to ask child to remove shorts on gaming platform Twitch

A secondary school teacher has been banned from the profession after using Google Translate to ask a child to remove their shorts on a streaming platform.

Liam Quinn, 32, was suspended as an IT and Computing teacher at Audenshaw School, Greater Manchester, amid a police probe in April 2020 and was subsequently sacked the next month.

A misconduct panel last month heard how he used a secondary account on the online gaming and entertainment streaming platform Twitch to talk to a child and ask them to remove their shorts via Google Translate, which the child did.

He told police he regularly engaged in “trolling” behaviour and “being an idiot in the chat” and used a secondary account in order to avoid restrictions affecting his main account.

During an interview with Greater Manchester Police, he claimed he had initially treated the exchange as a “stupid joke” and an attempt to provoke a reaction and be banned from the platform.

He was given a conditional caution from the force in 2024 for causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity.

The panel heard how Mr Quinn “maintained that he had not entered the chat with the intention of obtaining sexual gratification or forming a personal relationship with the child.”

It described the findings as “exceptionally serious” and concluded that his behaviour may lead to pupils being exposed to, or influenced by, the behaviour in a harmful way.

“It involved Mr Quinn accepting a conditional caution for causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity and this involved conduct which was facilitated through online communications with a child”

The panel found “limited evidence that Mr Quinn had fully recognised the potential impact of his conduct on the child involved, the harm that such conduct may cause to children, and the seriousness of his misconduct. Accordingly, the panel concluded that his level of insight and remorse remained limited.

“The lack of evidence that Mr Quinn has developed full insight means that there is some risk of the repetition of this behaviour and this jeopardises the future wellbeing of pupils.”

Mr Quinn has now been banned from the classroom indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England.

Due to the seriousness of his behaviour, he is not entitled to apply for restoration of his eligibility to teach.