Teacher who sexually assaulted underaged student and asked him to sext her X-rated photos arrested
An Australian teacher has been arrested after she allegedly assaulted a minor student sexually and sent him Snapchat messages, asking him to share explicit photos. Monica Young faces 10 charges, including multiple counts of aggravated sexual intercourse with a child, aged between 14 and 16, over a span of weeks. Young has also been charged with two counts of sexually touching a child intentionally and inciting a minor to touch her sexually. Young, a western Sydney teacher, was arrested from her home in Greenacre last Friday, July 10, after the 14-year-old victim reportedly made the allegations. Police seized the 23-year-old’s car and electronic devices during a search of her home as part of the ongoing investigation. She allegedly assaulted the male student on five occasions at locations associated with the Sydney school.
According to reports, Young was produced before a Bankstown Local Court magistrate on Monday, July 13, where she was denied bail as it was doubted that she could interfere with witnesses if released from jail. The police prosecutor said the recorded evidence had been briefly reviewed and added that they had already allegedly discovered the Snapchat messages of Young “encouraging the complainant to send an explicit image”. “As a result, this is an overwhelming prosecution case,” the prosecutor added.
Reports claimed that when the accused teacher first appeared before Parramatta Bail Court on Saturday, July 11, on 10 offenses, her lawyer tried to suppress her name in the case, arguing that her identity revelation would cause embarrassment, unfair impact on any future trial and could lead to the identification of the minor victim. But the lawyer’s application was rejected by Magistrate Karen Robinson after considering the open justice principle. The magistrate has, however, ordered that the names of any witnesses, potential witnesses and the name of the school should not be published. Robinson said: “In my view, were that order not made, if the names of the (adult witnesses were published) there is a real possibility that the identity of the complainant would then be determined and the child witnesses would be determined."
Last week after Young’s arrest, Detective Acting Superintendent Michael Haddow said, “This is a very quick response we have taken in relation to this matter, very serious allegations. Ultimately, teachers have a significant responsibility, there's a significant power shift between a teacher and a student and suddenly the amount of trust that we put in our teachers and certainly the allegation before the courts are a significant breach of that trust.”
Haddow also advised parents to have "open, honest and frank" conversations with their children. The officer said that "kids [aged] 14, 15 or 16, sometimes they act or think they're a little older than they are but ultimately children are vulnerable. They're easily led, easily influenced and we'd certainly urge parents to be aware of who their kids are spending time with, who they're chatting with online, and have those difficult conversations. Because ultimately parenting isn't an easy job."
Meanwhile, in a statement, an NSW Department of Education spokeswoman said: “The safety and wellbeing of students is the number one priority of the department. The department is aware of an alleged incident involving an employee. As police are investigating this matter, it is not appropriate for us to comment.”