Sydney teacher Craig Chantler facing child solicitation charges over Grindr conversation with 15yo boy

A jury has been told a Sydney high school teacher allegedly sent explicit messages to a boy he knew was underage.

High school teacher Craig Chantler is on trial in a Sydney court on child solicitation charges. Picture: Supplied

A Sydney high school teacher accused of trying to solicit an underage teen on the gay dating app Grindr told police he was “excited” when the 15-year-old suggested they have a threesome with another man, a court has heard.

Craig Chantler, 44, faced Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court on Wednesday for the first day of a three-day trial after pleading not guilty to using a carriage service to procure a child for unlawful sexual activity and doing an act in preparation for engaging in sexual activity with a person under 16 years.

Jurors were shown a video recording of Chantler’s interview with police after his arrest on April 29, 2022, in which he confirmed he was gay but was “not out”, and used Grindr to organise secret “hook ups” with other men.

He said he connected with the boy online on April 22, 2022 and they exchanged a few messages before striking up a more detailed conversation again two days later.

Chantler’s barrister, Scott Shaudin, told the jury his client admitted sending the messages but denied he’d broken the law.

Craig Chantler pictured outside Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court during a previous court appearance. Picture: John Grainger

“What I expect will be in issue [in the trial] is what [Chantler] intended and what he meant when he wrote the things he wrote,” Mr Shaudin said.

A copy of the messages, tendered to the court and shown to jurors, revealed Chantler asked the teen his age in a private chat.

When the teen said he was 15, Chantler replied he looked older and asked him if he’d ever “done anything with guys before”.

“Once, and this afternoon I will do a threesome,” the teen responded, before inviting Chantler to join him.

The court heard Chantler later told police in his interview that the thought of a threesome excited him.

However, he denied wanting to have sex with the teen and said he couldn’t explain why he’d continued communicating with him when he found out he was underage, other than to say he wanted to “suss it out”.

“I don’t know why I kept going … I didn’t think he was real, to be honest,” Chantler told police.

“A threesome sounded pretty hot to me in a sense, but not with a 15-year-old, it didn’t appeal to me.”

He later told police he “absolutely regretted” messaging the teen.

“I’m not a bad person … I’m not trying to hide anything,” he said.

“I know what I did was completely not the right thing.”

The court heard Chantler was involved in a second chat conversation at the same time with the teen and another man, Alan Foy, in which they discussed the threesome and how the boy would get to Foy’s house.

Chantler has pleaded not guilty to two charges.

The teen told both men he was 15 years old, at which time Chantler said “is 15 legal, isn’t it 16?”

The teen replied “15 is not legal”.

When Chantler expressed concerns they could get in trouble, the teen replied “exactly”.

The court heard Chantler and Foy messaged each other privately at the same time about who could collect the teen and bring him to Foy’s apartment, with Chantler saying “I’m so keen to hook up with him”.

The text messages show Chantler continued messaging the boy after he found out his age, asking what material he masturbated to and what year he was in at school.

During the later part of the conversation, Chantler boasted to the teen about sleeping with two of his teachers when he was in high school, and claimed to have performed fellatio on a friend’s father when he was 16.

The court heard Chantler and the teen never met up and no physical contact ever occurred between them.

Mr Shaudin said Chantler was a 44-year-old man who had previously volunteered with the RFS and had never been in trouble with the police.

“There was never an intention by the accused to procure [the teen] to engage in sexual activity, nor did the accused ever do an act in preparation for engaging in sexual activity, nor did he plan to do any act in preparation for planning to do sexual activity,” Mr Shaudin said.

The trial continues.

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