Thousands of criminals sought to work with children in the past three years

Over 16,000 people with criminal records applied to teaching positons during the past three years, a new investigation shows.

The applicants had over 44,000 offences between them, which included acts of murder, paedophilia and dealing heroin, an investigation from Schools Week shows.

The list of convictions include 22 child sex offences, two murders, three attempted murders, one case of soliciting for murder, 392 drug dealing convictions, three kidnappings, 28 indecent assaults on women, 345 robberies, 228 cases of soliciting or loitering to use a prostitute, four for carrying a shotgun in public and four child cruelty cases.

Everyone working with children has to go through a Disclosing Barring Service (DBS) check to see if they are on a list of people barred from working with children.