Teacher who paid for sex with minor 'can't be fired'

Teacher who paid for sex with minor 'can't be fired'

Being found guilty of paying for group sex with a minor is not sufficient grounds for education officials in Stockholm to fire a teacher who has refused to quit following his conviction.

“We don’t want him in the organization. We’re currently leaning toward a settlement involving an undisclosed number of months’ pay,” City of Stockholm human resources director Birgitta Elm told the Metro newspaper.

According to the newspaper, such a settlement could cost the city up to half a million kronor ($72,000).

The school teacher was recently convicted for his role in a high-profile group sex ring in which prominent businessmen and other professionals arranged orgies with girls they recruited over the internet.

Some of the girls involved were younger than 18-years-old.

The teacher was convicted for purchasing sexual services and fined 2,500 kronor. During the trial, he was able to convince the court that he didn’t know one of the girls from whom he purchased sex was 17-years-old, and thus was able to avoid being convicted for a more serious charge.

The man had also arranged one group session in Huddinge, south of Stockholm, but his involvement was not extensive enough for the man to be charged with pimping.

According to the teacher, his “mild” punishment isn’t sufficient to justify that he be fired or asked to resign, a position supported by union representatives.

“Criminality outside of the workplace usually isn’t sufficient cause for firing,” Sofie Rehnström, a legal expert with the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO), told the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper.

“Consequences also play a role, and the fact that we’re talking about fines also makes it hard to justify firing him. Instead, we’re likely talking about resignation and what grounds there may be for such a move.”

Elm from Stockholm’s human resources department told SvD the city is also looking into having the man reassigned into another division of the city’s administration which doesn’t involve working with children.

“Because of the milder sentence, he doesn’t think a resignation is justified. We accept this but the question then is what it’s going to cost us. What’s clear in any case is that this is a person we don’t want to have in our organization,” she told SvD.