Lying teacher who claimed she had glass eye after cancer banned from classroom
A lying teacher who claimed that she had cancer and that surgeons removed her eyeball has been banned from the classroom.
Julianne Cox spent two and a half years fibbing to colleagues that doctors took out her right eye and replaced it with a glass one because she had cancer.
The science teacher forged signatures and medical reports to maintain her bizarre fabrications.
Her lies escalated from claims her retina had been surgically removed, leaving her blind in the right eye in the process, to her entire eyeball being taken out and replaced with a prosthetic one.
She insisted she this was due to eye cancer, and that she was undergoing chemotherapy post-surgery.
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St Helena School in Colchester, Essex, where she worked, even splashed out on specialist equipment to help with her “vision issues”.
Cox forged letters from Colchester General Hospital (East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust)Fellow teaching staff only caught on to Ms Cox’s fanciful tales when she stuck an out of date logo on a fake letter ‘signed’ by Colchester General Hospital’s neurology department.
Her deceit continued through the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA)’s professional standards investigation seven years later.
On day three of the hearing - held while Ms Cox was teaching at another school - the science teacher submitted new ‘evidence’ she had a PhD from Cavendish College, Cambridge University.
The ‘doctor’ could not explain how she had managed that when Cavendish College, Cambridge, closed in 1892.
The following day the science teacher changed her line to claim she studied at Cavendish Laboratory College, Cambridge.
Cox claimed to have a PhD from the University of Cambridge (Getty Images/iStockphoto)However, the header of the ‘Official Transcript’ document was misspelled ‘Offcial Transcipt.’ Her claims also contradicted her previous evidence she was not “intelligent” enough to attend Cambridge University.
One of several witness statements debunking Ms Cox’s claims during her time at St Helena came from an an anonymous individual who gave Ms Cox an eye test. They confirmed she had both eyes, her vision, and had not had surgery.
When her fictions were put under pressure, she regularly passed the blame onto her partner acting behind her back, and said they convinced her she had eye cancer.
She blamed her behaviour on experiencing racism from pupils, adding that staff joked about her being “sensitive” about her race. This was never reported.
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Eventually the disgraced teacher admitted she had never had eye surgery, cancer, or chemo. She told the TRA she thought she was telling the truth at the time, and denied her behaviour was unprofessional.
Cox told colleagues she had her eye removed due to cancer (stock image) (Getty Images)Given her lack of remorse and persistent lying throughout the TRA hearing, the panel prohibited her indefinitely from teaching in any school, sixth form college, youth accommodation or children’s home in England.
She cannot appeal the decision.
The panel ruled that Ms Cox was not a credible witness during the proceedings, and noted inconsistencies in the oral and documentary evidence she provided.
A spokesperson said: “The panel was concerned that this demonstrated a continuing pattern of dishonest behaviour.
“Not only did this demonstrate a lack of insight and remorse, it also indicated to the panel that there was a risk of repetition of similar misconduct in the future.
“The gravity of Ms Cox’s misconduct meant that, in the panel’s view, it amounted to fraud or serious dishonesty at the most serious end of the spectrum.
“Of particular concern was the lack of insight and remorse Ms Cox showed at the hearing.
“Ms Cox had the benefit of some seven years to reflect on her behaviour and develop insight yet, despite this, she had failed to demonstrate sufficient insight and remorse at the hearing, and went so far as to provide what the panel considered to be dishonest evidence.
“The panel was concerned that a longer review period would be unlikely to assist Ms Cox in developing insight.”
On September 1, 2014 , Ms Cox began work at St Helena School, Colchester, as a newly qualified science teacher.
Her lies began by July 16 2015, when she claimed in a risk assessment she had an eye surgery scheduled a week later.
In a risk assessment on October 5 that year, Ms Cox claimed she had cancer in her right eye and the summer surgery removed her retina.
By April 28 2016, the science teacher emailed staff she was undergoing chemotherapy and that the treatment for “malign tissue around surgery scars” would last between six and 18 months.
During a meeting on July 20 2016 with a member of school staff, whose name has been redacted, and another unnamed individual, Ms Cox informed the school her right eye had been removed.
Specialist equipment was bought by the school two months later, and the month after that she emailed two members of staff to say her chemotherapy had resumed.
Document forgery commenced by November 1 2016, when Ms Cox sent the school a letter purporting to be sent by Colchester General Hospital.
Though she only passed it on in November, the bogus letter was dated after she told the school surgeons had removed her retina.
Colchester General Hospital’s neurology department insisted it never sent the letter, and a member of staff remarked the signatory logo had not been used for several months.
A staff meeting was called - Ms Cox could not explain the letter, but consented to a medical record check.
During the conversation Ms Cox “became unwell” and did not return to work.
Two weeks after the letter forgery the science teacher was placed on medical suspension because her records did not stack up.
On the same day, Ms Cox phoned Colchester General Hospital claiming the school forged her signature releasing her medical records.
As an investigation began, Ms Cox resigned with immediate effect.
Between the date marked on her resignation letter, and the date it arrived a week later, Dr Cox had started a new job over 60 miles away at The Bridge Academy, Hackney.
Contractually she was still employed at St Helena. It was later revealed she disclosed nothing about her alleged partial-blindness and missing eye to The Bridge Academy.
Discipline hearings were set up by St Helena, but Ms Cox did not attend, and staff wrote to her to say she would have been sacked even if she didn’t resign.
Two months after her sudden job change Essex Police launched a fraud investigation.
In police interviews the science teacher continued to weave strange tales, denying she told the school she had eye cancer, claiming her own signature had been forged in a letter to the school, and making up that she had eye cancer as a child.
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