NSW teacher accused of sending indecent snaps to UK students
An investigation across three continents led to charges against a NSW teacher accused of sending X-rated pictures to former students in the UK. Now his trial is drawing close.
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A trial is looming for a NSW teacher who allegedly sent sexual photographs to two underage students abroad before being arrested in an international Snapchat investigation involving US and UK investigators.
Daniel Mark Knowles is charged with four counts of sending indecent material to a person under 16 and one count of soliciting child pornography, court documents reveal.
It’s understood prosecutors will allege two teenage girls told police in Wiltshire, UK, their former teacher allegedly sent indecent images of himself using the messaging app Snapchat.
The 31-year-old, who now lives in Queensland, worked as a teacher in the southern United Kingdom in the lead-up to the complaint but had returned to Australia by the time authorities set out to arrest him.
The complaint first emerged in December 2018 but would span three continents in three months.
The Daily Telegraph understands the United States’ ICE Homeland Security and Investigations arm obtained the data from the tech-giant Snapchat which is now at the centre of the case.
They passed the information on to NSW Police and the Australian Federal Police.
Knowles was arrested in Bella Vista in February last year by the by AFP’s Joint Anti-Child Exploitation Team while they raided his home.
Knowles was working as a teacher in a Sydney school at the time of his arrest but, after being granted conditional bail at Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court, lost his job.
His licence to teach was also cancelled.
The former teacher’s case will return to the Downing Centre on Friday where he will be arraigned on the charges and formally committed to stand trial in the District Court.
He remains on bail.