by Jason Morris

A care worker who was sacked after a criminal record check revealed an unfounded allegation of abuse is fighting a legal battle to clear his name.

John Pinnington, a father of two children, from Benson, Oxon, claims that the police were wrong to disclose the allegation to his new employer. He is now awaiting the outcome of a judicial review.

The dispute has become a major test case. His lawyers say that if he loses, thousands of carers will be prevented from working with children and vulnerable adults.

Mr Pinnington was fired from his post as deputy principal of Thomley Hall, a college for autistic children in Oxfordshire, when his employers requested an enhanced Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check after he took the job in 2005.

The check revealed an unsubstantiated allegation of sexual abuse that was made against him by an autistic child he had cared for at another college in 2001. Police had investigated the allegation at the time and dismissed it.

Mr Pinnington, 59, is now challenging the right of Thames Valley Police to have disclosed the allegation to his new employer.

The case is a test of tough new vetting laws introduced after the murders of the Soham schoolgirls in 2002. The girls’ killer, Ian Huntley, had been able to get a job as a school caretaker despite having faced repeated allegations of sex offences involving underage girls.

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