How a child murderer ended up working at an Oxford primary school

A woman jailed for killing a schoolgirl as a teenager was able to teach at primary school in Oxford for almost a year without disclosing her conviction, it has emerged.

Iria Suarez-Gonzalez, now 35, became “one of Spain’s most notorious killers” after she and a friend stabbed 16-year-old Clara Garcia to death in 2000, the Oxford Mail reports. According to media reports from the time, the pair - who cut Garcia’s throat and stabbed her 32 times - were driven by a desire to know “what it would feel like to kill someone”.

Suarez-Gonzalez, also then 16, spent six years in prison for the murder. However, under Spanish law any conviction committed by a minor is wiped from their record after ten years, so she was able to apply for a job at West Oxford Primary School in 2016 without having to disclose her past.

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After securing a role as a teaching assistant, she worked closely with children at the school for ten months until July 2017, the Daily Mail reports.

Her past was revealed only after an anonymous complaint was made in October 2018 to charity Crimestoppers, which then then alerted the Oxfordshire County Council.

Suarez-Gonzalez was arrested and brought before Oxford Crown Court in February this year on a charge of “fraud by false representation for allegedly not disclosing the previous conviction when she applied for a job at the school”, The Times says.

UK law does not allow offences committed by minors to be expunged from their record in the same manner as Spanish law. However, the case was dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) because of a lack of evidence.

Responding to the revelations about Suarez-Gonzalez’s school role, after prior reporting restrictions were lifted, a CPS spokesperson said that all cases are kept “under continuous review so we can consider any new information that comes to light”, but added that “in this instance, it emerged Ms Suarez-Gonzalez’s conviction was spent which resulted in the charges being dropped”.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Oxfordshire County Council told the Oxford Mail: “Recruitment is not the responsibility of the council, it is the responsibility of the individual school.

“The school had followed safer recruitment processes in terms of the recruitment of this individual. There is a clear recruitment process in place for schools to follow in line with safer recruitment procedures.

“The school is in liaison with the local authority to continue to support students through the curriculum around feeling safe and knowing they have people that they can talk to in school if they need to.

“We would stress this charge was not in any way related to any children at the school and came to light only after the staff member had left the school.”

The school has yet to comment.