A teacher from Renfrewshire claims he is 'still fit to teach' - despite admitting to having sexual relations with an S6 pupil.
Ross Spittal, a former teacher at a high school in West Lothian, had sex with the student at his home on at least two occasions.
The 31-year-old maths teacher, from Bishopton, began a romantic relationship with the teenager - believed to be 18 at the time - in 2019.
The relationship was outed when Ross's girlfriend at the time, Kim Smyth, found over 800 emails between the pair on the couple's shared computer, the Daily Record reports.
At a hearing in front of the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) today, Smyth, 32, revealed that she found the messages on pupil teacher portal, Glow.
Smyth was tearful as she recounted the moment she found out about the affair and discovered images of the schoolgirl that were sent to Spittal.
Spittal admitted the relationship but said he believes he should still be allowed to teach.
Referring to the former schoolgirl, Smyth said: "I saw that he was searching for Pupil A on Facebook. He said he was feeling low about teaching and he was looking for nice messages pupils wrote about him on Facebook.
"He was messaging the pupil using Glow at late times. The chat and banter you'd expect with a friend. We were friendly with a lot of Ross' colleagues.
"We would go on nights out and we went to some of their weddings. They would tell me he was well liked by pupils, especially Pupil A. He always brushed it off."
Smyth added: "One Saturday night at about 2am, me and Ross were sitting in drinking and he kept looking at his phone.
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"He was messaging Pupil A on Glow. I thought it was extremely odd behaviour. The day I came across the emails on our laptop, a message popped up at the bottom of the screen, she was emailing him.
"When I opened the conversation it was happening there and then, they were planning on meeting up. On May 22, 2019 I discussed a number of emails between him and Pupil A. I found 800 emails between the two dating back to early 2019.
"There were pictures of Pupil A. I was literally seeing photos of her as I was speaking to him on the phone. He asked me not to tell the police or the school."
Smyth told the council one email read: "Kim is at work, you can come over."
On not phoning the police, she said: "It's something I regret now. I was in complete shock and I was heartbroken. It was in his hands to say what he had done."
Police Scotland found that no criminality had occurred after the relationship was later reported to them.
At the time, Smyth had been in a relationship with Spittal for five years and they had been living together for three.
Spittal's legal rep Claire Raftery said her client admits all allegations brought to him by the GTCS.
He admitted kissing the sixth year pupil after an Easter school session in April 2019.
He also had sexual relations with the same girl at his home in April 2019.
In May 2019, Spittal told the school's head teacher that there was "nothing going on at all" between himself and the pupil.
Today, he admitted to being dishonest about the relationship.
The GTCS investigation will determine whether Spittal should remain on the teaching register and be allowed back in the classroom.
The hearing continues.
