A PRIMARY school has come under fire for not telling parents about the suspension of a paedophile caretaker — after they heard about it two years later in The Bolton News.

Joseph Hart, aged 34, of Green Lane, Horwich, tried to order a 12-year-old girl for £100-per-hour sex from notorious Kent paedophile Darren Leggett.

The deal collapsed when Leggett was arrested in February, 2012, but Hart was found guilty of arranging a child sex offence.

Hart was Chorley New Road Primary School's caretaker at the time and he was arrested three months after Leggett, when police found child pornography on Hart's computer, offences he admitted.

The Horwich school suspended Hart at the time of his arrest and he is no longer employed by them. None of the charges relate to his work at the school.

But parents say they were not told the reason for Hart's departure — not even that it related to a police investigation.

The school say Hart was a temporary cleaner, and that they could not discuss the case further because of "legal restrictions".

Horwich mum Charlene Hoofe, who has four children at the school, was told by Chorley New Road Primary that the matter was one for Bolton Council to answer.

Mrs Hoofe said: "I just wanted to know exactly when he worked there, so I could know how long he could have interacted with my kids.

"But I was just told it was a council matter, and that's all the school could say.

"And I've still not heard back from the council.

"Bolton Council should have told parents about this – we're bound to be concerned."

Her daughters are aged 11 and 10, while she has two sons who are eight and seven. The children were all at the school when Hart worked there, Mrs Hoofe believes.

She added: "It shocked me when I saw this in the paper. I can't believe it was the first we'd heard of it.

"A letter should have been sent out. It's not on."

A Chorley New Road Primary School spokesman said: "In May 2012, the governing body and the head teacher of Chorley New Road Primary School in post at that time, together with the local authority, were made aware, by the police, of a confidential matter concerning a person acting as the temporary cleaner at the school.

"The school worked very closely with the local authority and the police at the time, complying fully with local safeguarding procedures and policies, which were implemented fully.

"As it was a police investigation, the governing body and head teacher, in post at the time, were unable to discuss the case further due to legal restrictions."

A spokesman for Bolton Council said: "It was inappropriate for us or the school to say anything about an ongoing police investigation.”

Hart was spared jail when he was sentenced at Bolton Crown Court on Monday, instead getting a two-year prison term, suspended for the same period.

Judge Eliot Knopf said the case was "unique" and that Hart, who the court was told had Asperger's and an obsessive compulsive personality, did not understand the "outcome of his actions".