GSCC conduct case: Student ‘unintentionally’ visited 31 porn sites

A student social worker told his course leader he “unintentionally” accessed 31 pornographic websites during a placement one afternoon, a General Social Care Council conduct committee heard yesterday.

Abul Kalam Azad, of East London, is accused of skipping a planned school visit on 2 November 2005 to access “offensive and sexually explicit” images from a PC at the NSPCC’s offices, where he was on a placement, including 84 pages from page3.com.

Azad, who was then a second year student at Middlesex University at the time, declined to attend the conduct hearing in London, so comments he made during disciplinary interviews were read out.

Reading The Sun’s website

He told Christine Cocker, curriculum head at the school of health and social sciences at Middlesex University, he had been reading news stories on The Sun website and accessed its ‘page 3’ section, but “had not done this intentionally”.

He said: “It kept popping up…I was pressing the crosses but my mouse was not good. I panicked. I never come across pictures of women like this before.”

Azad said he did not call IT support at the NSPCC because he “needed to learn how to stop it” in case his children were exposed to similar websites on his home PC.

31 websites and 167 web pages

An internet activity log recorded visits over two hours to 31 websites and 167 web pages breaching the NSPCC’s internet usage policy.

IT consultant John Wright said 30% of the sites were ‘adult’, showing women in various stages of undress, while 70% were “graphic, sexual images”. He added that a large number of websites may have been pop-ups.

Khalida Khan, a children’s services manager at Tower Hamlets Council, east London, where Azad worked as a reviewing and assessing officer, told the committee the images in question were “offensive and sexually explicit”.

Social work ability ‘called into question’

She added Azad’s lack of insight and “naïve” attempts to justify his actions “called into question his ability to make judgements as a social worker”.

The committee heard that Azad’s placement with the NSPCC was terminated and he was dismissed from his course at Middlesex University two months later.

The hearing continues.

Related articles

Expert guide to conduct system

Community Care special report on conduct system