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A teacher who chose an “inappropriate” artist to be studied in class was sacked when a GCSE pupil then stumbled upon explicit images online, a tribunal has been told.

Head of art Peter Knowles selected surrealist artist HR Giger, best known for design work on the film Alien, as a subject for a lesson at Coombe Boys’ School in New Malden.

He was dismissed for gross misconduct after a student used a school computer to research the artist and was “shocked” after seeing explicit images on the internet, the hearing was told.

Deputy head Karen Vellisarides said Giger was not an “appropriate” artist for study — despite him being on the national curriculum. She claimed Mr Knowles “gave Giger’s name” to pupils without imposing sufficient restrictions to stop them viewing unsuitable material online in conducting research.

She told the employment tribunal in Croydon: “The school’s responsibility is to the safeguarding of the students, no matter what.”

Mr Knowles, 54, was away from the school for a dental appointment at the time the images were viewed and having his lesson covered by a colleague.

He is suing the Coombe Secondary Schools Academy Trust for unfair dismissal and disability discrimination.

In a witness statement, executive head teacher Deborah Walls said she stood by the decision to sack him.

She insisted she would “never describe myself as a prude” but claimed “a reasonable teacher would have avoided that artist”, despite the national curriculum including him.

“In the case of Giger, I genuinely felt and continue to feel that many of his artworks are simply not suitable for children of school age,” she added.

She said that in addition to the dispute about Giger, there had been other incidents involving Mr Knowles which she also considered “sufficiently serious to warrant summary dismissal”, including him pretending to cut off the beard of a Muslim pupil.

Mr Knowles was also accused of “making sexually explicit resource materials available to pupils,” including The Art of Arousal, a book on art by Dr Ruth Westheimer which he insisted was kept in a drawer in the department’s office.

He criticised his dismissal, telling the tribunal it was his stand-in colleague who had allowed pupils to carry out their own research into Giger.

His lesson plan for the students, preparing for a mock GCSE, was to copy from 14 laminates he had prepared of the Swiss artist’s work and which were not sexually explicit, he said.

Mr Knowles, of Dorking, added: “I am accused of directing pupils to research Giger. It makes no sense to me. I was not there". The hearing continues.