A controversial head teacher erupted into fury in front of young pupils and destroyed an electric organ by running it over several times in his car.

Malcolm Hayes, head at Horsmonden Primary School, is said to have behaved similarly to Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers during an assembly in which he was due to play the instrument.

The teacher made headlines in 2001 when he left his wife Paula, 48, to set up home with their then 16-year-old foster daughter Rhoxan Kenward.

"I imagined him looking like Basil Fawlty when he thrashed his car with a tree branch..." - parent on Malcolm Hayes's behaviour

Mr Hayes, 49, was allowed to carry on teaching at the village school, in Back Lane, and has since married and had two children with Rhoxan.

But he has now taken medical leave after the school's board of governors received complaints from parents about the incident in an assembly last week.

As he was trying to work the electric organ, Hayes was said to have "snapped" and begun smashing and punching the keyboard aggressively instead of playing it.

The teacher then picked up the electric instrument and stormed outside asking frightened pupils to stand and follow him.

He then attacked the organ in the middle of the school car park before getting into his car and crushing it by running it over and reversing over it several times.

A parent of a pupil, who did not want to be named, said: "When my child came home that day and told me what had happened, I couldn't believe it.

"I called around other parents to find out what had gone on. They were all saying the same thing.

"One minute he was playing the organ, the next he's smashing the keys and behaving really aggressively."

They added: "It's a primary school, so some of the children didn't really understand if it was all part of some show, but by the time he was revving his car and crushing the organ, a few were quite scared.

"I imagined him looking like Basil Fawlty when he thrashed his car with a tree branch."

A Kent County Council spokesman said Mr Hayes was absent from his role for "medical" reasons.

A statement said: "Malcolm Hayes, head teacher at Horsmonden Primary School, is on medical leave at the moment and it would be inappropriate to discuss the circumstances surrounding his leave.

"The county council has been involved to make sure that the school has appropriate leadership arrangements in place while the head teacher is absent. It is providing support to Mr Hayes.

"We would like to reassure parents and carers that the education of children remains the top priority for the school, which is rated 'good' by Ofsted."

In November 2010, inspectors praised Mr Hayes for "adding stability and a more consistent vision for improvement to the leadership and management of the school".

When news of Mr Hayes’s affair with Rhoxan first emerged in 2001 he was the subject of a police investigation, looking at if he had sex with her while she was under-age. He was not charged with any offence.

He married Rhoxan in July 2004, when she was 19, in a civil wedding ceremony at Port Lympne Wild Animal Park.