A teaching assistant told Newport pupils that he had killed 250 people as a sniper.

A Welsh rugby player and teaching assistant has been banned from classrooms for two years after telling his pupils he had killed more than 250 people as a military sniper.

Scott John Trigg-Turner, 44, made false claims to a Year 8 class in Newport that he had been in the US Navy, had the code name ‘Kill Switch’ and still owned a gun.

A professional standards hearing in Cardiff was told that Mr Trigg-Turner, a wheelchair user, also claimed to be a Lord, awarded an MBE and to have served in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, despite being too young to have done so.

Trigg-Turner denied being unprofessional and had told investigators his words were “misinterpreted.”

Fellow learning support assistant Sharon Davies said she had become suspicious of Mr Trigg-Turner after hearing stories he told pupils at Bassaleg School in 2023, including boasts of having killed “more than 250 people”.

However, in an email to the Education Workforce Council Wales (EWC) audience, Trigg-Turner said he had “been diligent in my transparency in all interactions with students. I have never crossed professional boundaries and never would.”

And he added: “I feel singled out and singled out. It’s not fair.”

The EWC panel was also told that he arrived late and left early for class without agreement several times and gave inconsistent explanations to colleagues about how he came to be a wheelchair user.

A prominent Welsh international wheelchair rugby player, Trigg-Turner has also played for the Wigan Warriors and Torfaen Tigers wheelchair rugby league team.

He was not at the hearing, was not represented and has not given a formal response to the allegations.

But the EWC hearing was told that during a school investigation Mr Trigg-Turner denied having a gun in his home or saying he had one.

He added that any mention of the military referred to family members and that his comments to the class had been taken the wrong way.

Mr Trigg-Turner, who went on to work at Cardiff and Vale College after leaving Bassaleg, was removed from the EWC register in the categories of both learning support worker in schools and further education centres.

Panel chair Helen Beard-Robbins said: “There is evidence of deep-seated attitudinal problems given the lies he told to his students, colleagues and his line manager.”

The panel ruled that Trigg-Turner cannot seek reinstatement for two years.

You have the right to appeal the decision to the High Court within 28 days.