Art teacher denies head-butting pupil

A teacher yesterday told a court of his disbelief when he heard he had been accused of head-butting an unruly pupil.

Graham Davies, 55, said he had lowered his nose towards the teenager and pushed him in an act of "pure frustration" after the boy had refused to stop disrupting his lesson in December last year.

But the art teacher told Newton Abbot magistrates' court in Devon that the incident, which led other pupils to call out "he's nutted him", had not involved a punch or a butt.

Davies, who had taught at the comprehensive for 26 years, denies common assault against the pupil, now 14, who had amassed an 88-page disciplinary record in 13 months at the school.

Davies said that he had twice pushed the boy as he tried to re-enter the room and that he could not believe how the act had been interpreted.

"When the allegation was put to me, I was incredulous. I never made any physical contact with my head on any part of his body," he said.

The teacher, from Aveton Gifford, Devon, who has been suspended since February, had excluded the pupil for repeated disruptive behaviour, which included doing impressions of Michael Jackson.

Another pupil, who along with the alleged victim cannot be named, told the court he saw the teacher put his face close to the boy before head-butting him and punching him.

Staff who saw the boy following the alleged attack said they found him crying with a bump on his forehead.

Roger King, a first-aider at the school, which cannot be named, said the teenager had a "slight bump, not very large, almost central above the bridge of his nose".

The case continues.