As the deeply religious head teacher at St Joseph’s Catholic School and Sixth Form Centre in Port Talbot, Dr John Felton was widely regarded as a disciplinarian, a man who expected the highest of standards when it came to his staff and his students.
So strict was the married 54-year-old mathematician that at times he even set up a desk outside the girls’ toilets, demanding the names of those who came to spend a penny during lessons, so he could check they had been given permission to absent themselves from class.
Imagine the shock, then, when the father-of-three launched a brutal attack on his deputy head Richard Pyke last month, hitting the married 51-year-old about the head five times with a heavy adjustable spanner in a violent row over an alleged love triangle involving a young female member of staff.
Moments before the incident, he emailed staff to apologise ‘for the distress which the rest of the day will bring’.
The ensuing onslaught, which took place at the school where around 900 pupils were in attendance at the time, has left Felton facing jail when he is sentenced later this month.
It was ‘a spectacular fall from grace to say the least’ – as his own barrister put it at Swansea Crown Court this week where the disgraced head, whose own wife was among the teaching staff he led, admitted a single charge of attempted wounding with intent.
His courtroom mea culpa, however, has inevitably left behind more questions than there are answers about this shocking saga and the scandalous events leading up to the attack on the morning of Wednesday, March 5.
It was Ash Wednesday, one of the holiest days in the church calendar. A priest was due to come in that morning to hold a Mass for staff and students.
What on earth can have led Felton to attack a long-term colleague with whom he had previously enjoyed perfectly cordial relations?
Dr John Felton, who launched a brutal attack on his deputy head Richard Pyke, hitting the married 51-year-old about the head five times with a heavy adjustable spanner
What was going on in the usually calm and composed teacher’s head to make him so angry that he would carry out a violent crime on school premises at a time when fears about weapons being brought into school – although by pupils rather than staff – are at an all-time high?
Amid calls for a public inquiry, several parents have told the Mail of their fury about the scandal at the school whose slogan, blazoned across a sign at the entrance, is ‘Becoming fully human in Christ’.
Kim Isherwood, chair of Public Child Protection Wales, which promotes higher standards of education for children in Wales and challenges the Welsh government over safeguarding failures, told the Mail this week: ‘For a crime of passion to take place on school grounds like this is astonishing. It’s a complete disaster. These are adults who are in a position of trust. They are supposed to be role models. This is not the type of example we want to set for our children. How are the children meant to respect their teachers now?’
A mother at the school has also spoken of her concerns to this newspaper: ‘What is St Joseph’s actually teaching the children? That adultery is OK? That it’s OK to cheat on your wife, children and family?
‘I put my trust in the school as an educational establishment that took their commitment to God and the Bible seriously. What a mistake that was. Many parents now want to know what is going to be done to clean up standards at the school.’
This week, an investigation by the Mail has uncovered some of the tensions leading up to Felton’s jaw-dropping attack. As his barrister, John Hipkin KC, put it in court this week: ‘The case has a unique background to it.’
Felton himself alluded to this troubling back story at the beginning of the ‘Dear Staff’ email he sent moments before the attack on Mr Pyke.
In it he wrote: ‘The great mistake I made was appointing [the female teacher] in various roles. She has slept her way to the top… currently engaging with sexual activity with a least 2 current members of the SLT [Senior Leadership Team] including Richard Pyke.’
Mr Pyke, who is deputy safeguarding lead at St Joseph’s, was taken to hospital in an ambulance with non life-threatening injuries
It is not clear to which other member of staff he is referring.
The Mail has decided not to name the teacher, who is a former pupil at the school, and a single mother in her 30s, who has been working there since 2017.
She is understood to have once been in a relationship with father-of-three Dr Felton, who was previously her maths teacher, although there is no suggestion their affair began while she was still a student.
A family member said this week that she is currently taking a leave of absence from the school.
When she left the school to study maths at university in 2011, she wrote in the leavers’ year book that the thing she would miss most was ‘Maths Club with Doc’.
Felton, meanwhile, has taught at St Joseph’s since 2001, when he was made head of maths, before being made assistant head in 2012, deputy head in 2017 and head teacher in 2023. He had been in the job for less than two years at the time of his attack on Mr Pyke.
In recent months, he certainly seems to have been under a great deal of pressure as he tried to raise standards at his school.
As one parent put it to the Mail: ‘He was a great maths teacher but not a good leader. He was too heavy-handed, a micromanager who didn’t trust teachers to do their jobs.’
At a tribunal hearing in December, Felton was ordered to apologise to a boy he had previously excluded from school.
The 14-year-old pupil has ADHD and dyslexia and the judge said that the school’s strict approach, which saw the child handed more than 250 punishments, had left him ‘at a particular disadvantage… compared with pupils who were not disabled’.
St Joseph’s Catholic School and Sixth Form Centre in Port Talbot, Wales, where the attack took place. Emblazoned across a sign at the entrance is the school slogan, ‘Becoming fully human in Christ’.
The headteacher was also told during the Disability Tribunal of Wales hearing that teachers and governors at his school would have to undergo training in relation to neurodiverse children and the challenges they face. Felton’s request to appeal that decision was refused.
In January, as required by the judge, Felton wrote directly to the boy, inviting him back to the school and apologising ‘that our efforts didn’t achieve what we wanted for you and for any stress this could have caused you’.
Another parent is taking the school to the Education Tribunal Wales over Felton’s decision to exclude her daughter. The tribunal is set for July 11.
His attack on Mr Pyke, who is deputy safeguarding lead at St Joseph’s, came less than six weeks after this humiliating climbdown.
If Felton was ultimately overcome by the proverbial green-eyed monster, then he apparently reached breaking point just days after Mr Pyke and the female member of staff at the centre of the allegations returned from a half-term school trip to Krakow in Poland sponsored by the Welsh Government. Felton’s wife and a Polish cleaner at the school were also on the ‘international learning exchange programme’ trip with Year 11 students, which featured a visit to the former Auschwitz Birkenau concentration camp and Krakow’s historic salt mines.
The email Felton sent shortly before he assaulted Mr Pyke was filled with a barrage of accusations about the father-of-two and his alleged affair with the female staff member. He told his staff: ‘I am sorry for the distress which the rest of today will bring. I am sorry. You are good people and do an amazing job for our community. Goodbye.’
There wasn’t time for anyone to prevent what happened next.
Dr Felton had been in the headteacher job for less than two years at the time of his attack. One parent told the Mail: ‘He was a great maths teacher but not a good leader. He was too heavy-handed, a micromanager who didn’t trust teachers to do their jobs.’
Moments later, at around 9.50am, CCTV cameras captured Felton, dressed in a blue high-vis jacket, entering Mr Pyke’s office and swinging his 18-inch Stillson wrench like a baseball bat as he launched his furious attack.
The footage shows a stunned Mr Pyke falling to the floor and kicking out his legs as he desperately tries to defend himself.
One parent has told the Mail that pupils attending a Welsh lesson in a next-door classroom heard thuds and blows raining down on Mr Pyke as well as his cries for help.
The class teacher ran in to Mr Pyke’s office and is believed to have disarmed Felton before raising the alarm while terrified children texted their parents.
Bleeding from a head wound, Mr Pyke was taken to hospital in an ambulance with non life-threatening injuries while Felton, who was seen running through the corridor after the incident, was arrested on school premises and has been in custody ever since.
A second mother at the school told the Mail this week: ‘How can a Catholic school have allowed this situation to develop? You’ve got a husband and wife working there, one’s the head and the other’s the head of RE, and then his former mistress.
‘It’s just all so inappropriate. What kind of example is being set to the children? Above all, it’s a faith school and this goes against all the teachings of the Catholic Church.’
Public Protection Wales chair Kim Isherwood, who is now calling for public inquiry into events at the school, added: ‘We are already living in a society with broken homes. St Joseph’s is a school of faith where sexual immorality should be frowned upon and marriage and relationships should be promoted. They should be teaching the children about healthy relationships. It’s an extraordinary breach of trust.’
One parent has told the Mail that pupils attending a Welsh lesson in a next-door classroom heard thuds and blows raining down on Mr Pyke as well as his cries for help
Asked for a comment, a Neath Port Talbot Council spokesperson said: ‘It would be inappropriate to comment while the judicial process is ongoing.
‘However, we remain committed, in conjunction with the diocese and governing body, to providing a safe and supportive environment for all pupils and staff at St Joseph’s Catholic School and Sixth Form Centre. The wellbeing of our school community continues to be our priority.’
Born in 1969, the son of an engineer and a midwife, Felton was educated privately at Catholic St Bede’s College in Manchester. He married his Spanish wife, who teaches religious education at St Joseph’s, at St David’s Roman Catholic Church in Swansea in May 1996, five years before starting work at St Joseph’s as head of maths.
He was also a governor at the school, where he appeared so committed to his work pupils used to joke that he lived on the premises.
Many recall the pithy maxim he passed on to all his students: ‘Invest in your future and your future will invest in you.’
In a school leaver’s magazine from 2013, a former pupil described him as ‘without a doubt the most inspirational and encouraging teacher/mentor I have ever had. He is the kindest, most honest, hard-working teacher.’
Another student added that he was a, ‘Top teacher! Shame his footballing skills weren’t up to his mathematical standards!’
Felton is also a highly-vocal anti-abortionist. As chairman of the Swansea and Llanelli branch of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children he frequently wrote to newspapers sharing his view that ‘all human beings from the moment of conception are unique human beings, each precious in their own right.’
Felton’s crime, however, is one which will not easily be forgotten. By pleading guilty at Swansea Crown Court this week he avoided the scandal and embarrassment of a trial which would undoubtedly have laid bare the complex web of relationships which ultimately drove him to attack Mr Pyke.
Appearing via video link from prison this week, he nodded stoically as Judge Paul Thomas KC told him that given the serious nature of his misdemeanour, a custodial sentence was inevitable.
‘In the context of where and how this offence was committed, it seems to me that my public duty requires that only a prison sentence can be passed here,’ the judge said.
Felton will be sentenced on April 25, but having confessed his crime and shown he is ready to accept whatever punishment is coming his way, what lies ahead for the once highly respected educationalist is now uncertain.
Having told students so many times to act with an eye on the future, Felton might have done well to take heed of his own advice.
Additional reporting by Tom Bedford
