Traralgon IT teacher accused of using Snapchat to stalk child
A Traralgon IT teacher on grooming charges is accused of using the app Snapchat to stalk a child for several years. Police swooped on the teacher to arrest him on school grounds.
Law & Order
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A Gippsland high school IT teacher is accused of using Snapchat to stalk a student for four years as he faces sex offence charges against the child, aged under 16.
Court documents reveal that Traralgon man Steven Grant Dockley, 37, has been charged with three offences relating to the student.
The Kurnai College teacher faces two charges of grooming for sexual conduct with a child under 16 and a further stalking charge, including through the social media platform Snapchat.
The stalking charge relates to contact made on the app between 2015 and 2019 “with the intention of causing physical or mental harm to the victim, including self-harm, or of arousing apprehension or fear in the victim”.
The alleged grooming offences span from 2017 to 2018, the first for communicating “with the intention of facilitating the child’s engagement in a sexual offence with the accused”, and the second relating to the same sexual intent “by the accused or by another person”.
Dockley was arrested on school grounds in March by detectives from the Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team.
It’s the second case this year of a teacher charged over allegations of sexual impropriety with children via Snapchat.
Milgate Primary School teacher Liam Paul Wilkinson, 25, was arrested last month following a sting by police in the United States.
The Grade 5 teacher was accused of sending a lewd image to a girl, 13.
It’s understood police were notified and officers continued contact with Wilkinson by posing as the girl on the app.
Wilkinson was this week suspended by the Victorian Institute of Teaching, having previously been stood aside on an interim basis.
Dockley also faces a full suspension.
The Dockley matter returns to Latrobe Valley Magistrate’s Court for a contest mention on August 8.
Wilkinson is set to face a committal mention at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on October 11.