A maths teacher was sacked after a pupil screened a jihadist beheading video during one of her classes.

Moya Fletcher, 51, was teaching at Rathbone - a charity which provides education and training for 14 to 24-year-olds - in Wigan, Greater Manchester when the incident happened.

The mother-of-three says the pupil showed her the film in class before she had a chance to stop it.

Maths teacher Moya Fletcher (left) was sacked after one of her students showed a jihadist beheading video - like that pictured (right) - during one of her classes

Miss Fletcher, from Chorley, Lancashire, was later sacked for gross misconduct over the incident and was even interviewed by police.

She said: '[The student] said could he show me something on the internet.

'I was not told anything about him, so I had no cause to suspect anything. I said 'yes'. I stuck on the screen and it was a graphic beheading.

'I asked him to turn it off and I spoke to him about watching these kind of things. When another member of staff heard, they told the manager without talking to me.'

Rathbone defended its actions today, insisting the pupil accessed the video through Miss Fletcher's computer and her sacking was appropriate.

Miss Fletcher was teaching at Rathbone in Wigan at the time. The company has defended its decision to dismiss her, insisting the pupil accessed the video through her computer

Managing director Linda Dean said: 'Because of Ms Fletcher's actions she was suspended immediately and later dismissed for inappropriate conduct.

'The safety and wellbeing of our young people is paramount and learners do not have open access to internet content, unsuitable content is blocked by a firewall.

WHERE THE LESSON WAS BEING HELD: WHAT IS RATHBONE? Rathbone is a national charity which teaches more than 10,000 students-a-year at 45 centres around the UK. One of its four main programmes involves teaching maths, English and IT to pupils aged 14 to 16 who have been excluded or who have left their school. It also offers a range of study programmes on vocational courses for 16 to 18-year-olds in courses from mechanics to catering. The charity also runs apprenticeship schemes and traineeships for students aged 16 to 24. Advertisement

'But she allowed learners to access this material on her staff computer which has a different level of access as tutors can view a wider range of materials.'

A series of beheading videos were posted online by Syria terror group ISIS last year, beginning with the murder of US journalist James Foley in August.

It was followed by films of the killings of American Steven Sotloff and British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning - who was from Eccles, Lancashire - later in the year.