Former Educating Cardiff teacher faces sexual assault trial over 2015 incident
Gareth Ritter, a former assistant head at Willows High and participant in Channel 4’s Educating Cardiff, has pleaded not-guilty to sexually assaulting a 17-year-old in 2015.
At Merthyr Crown Court, Gareth Ritter, 44, former assistant head and music teacher at Willows High who appeared in Channel 4’s Educating Cardiff, denied a charge of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old in 2015. The complainant said Ritter gave her a lift, then stopped at his Cardiff Bay flat, where he allegedly commented on her dress, touched her lower back and buttocks, and forced a kiss while she tried to move away. She recounted feeling trapped against a wall and unable to stop the contact, later reporting the incident years after it occurred.
During the hearing, prosecutors noted that explicit images of the girl, originally taken consensually by her partner, were later found on Ritter’s phone, leading to separate guilty pleas for offences involving child images. Ritter’s solicitor maintains that no inappropriate behavior took place. The Education Workforce Council Wales has placed Ritter on an interim suspension, rendering him ineligible for teacher registration as of December 2024. The court proceedings are ongoing.
