A former West London primary school teacher has been banned from the classroom for life after it was found out she had smuggled an African girl into the UK to work as a ‘slave’ in her house and lied about it. Ernestina Quainoo, 53, will never teach again after it emerged she lied about her child trafficking conviction in her job application in 2019, claiming it related to her assisting a ‘lady I lived with as a family member’ to come to the UK according to a tribunal panel’s notes at the Teaching Regulation Agency.

A colleague at Cherry Lane Primary School, West Drayton, found a newspaper report about her shocking past in December 2022 and alerted her bosses that the conviction had in fact related to the trafficking of a child. She was suspended the following day. She helped smuggle a child into the country under the false promise of education and a job after they moved to the UK from Ghana in 2004, the Mail reports.

The disgraced teacher and her husb and Samuel Quainoo forced the young girl to cook and clean in her house for 18 months as well as babysit her two young sons, a court heard in 2008 when they were convicted. The Mail reported during the 2008 court case that the girl was 14, however the TRA panel heard that the girl’s age was ‘inconclusive’, though they noted she was a child and falsified documents had been used in the commission of the crime.

The girl reportedly finally managed to escape when she fell ill and went to get medical help. Ms Quainoo was given a suspended sentence for assisting unlawful immigration to the UK, the Mail reported.

How she got the job

Years later in May 2019, Ms Quainoo applied to be a class teacher at Cherry Lane Primary School. During the application she did declare that she had an ‘immigration offence’ conviction – after initially denying she had any convictions by answering ‘no’ to the question. When this was flagged up as inaccurate because she’d answered yes on a previous job application, she claimed this was an oversight while quickly filling out the application form.

She was hired in July of that year to teach Key Stage One pupils (children between the ages of five and seven). She was able to teach for over three years before her dark past was discovered by a colleague in December 2022. The school was tipped off about the crimes after a newspaper article was shared with them about Ms Quainoo and her husband’s treatment of the young girl and the 2008 court case.

The subsequent investigation

She was suspended 10 days before Christmas, pending an investigation after safeguarding concerns were raised. She resigned in February 2023 but the school continued the disciplinary process, referring her to the TRA panel.

They investigated her job application for dishonesty after she submitted it saying she did not have any past convictions. However the allegation could not stand because the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act allows people with spent convictions and cautions to not mention these when applying for most jobs. However, Ms Quainoo’s conviction was reportedly not covered by this right, the panel heard.

Despite this there was not enough evidence to prove she deliberately lied. After her job application she later submitted a Disclosure Statement in which she did declare she had been convicted for ‘Assist Unlawful Immigration into an EU Member State’ on July 11, 2008.

However, she claimed it related to when she “assisted and came along [to the UK] with a lady I lived with as a family member”.

Adding: “Two years later, in June 2006, this came to the attention of the authorities and I was arrested. Due to my inability to demonstrate that she [the individual] was a member [of] the family, I was charged with assisting her unlawful entry into the UK on July 11, for which I pleaded guilty as I completely misunderstood the cultural differences that exist between the two countries.

“As a result of this, I was given a two-year suspended sentence and required to undertake a ‘Women’s Programme’ for a few months”.

Sue Davies, chair of the TRA panel said: “At the time, the Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance did not require that an internet search of candidates was undertaken.

“The panel accepted that the school chose to still employ Mrs Quainoo on the basis of the Disclosure Statement and the DBS check giving them no reason to believe the offence might have been in relation to a child. The panel considered it was regrettable that no further investigation was undertaken by the School to inform the risk assessment at the time in its discharging of its safeguarding duty.”

Ms Quainoo was subsequently given a lifelong prohibition order. Sarah Buxcey for the Education Secretary said: “Mrs Quainoo’s conduct leading to the conviction ran counter to what should have been at the very core of her practise as a teacher with a duty of care towards children. A prohibition order would therefore prevent such a risk from being present in the future.”