Victorian teachers facing serious criminal charges

Assault and sexual offences are among the shocking crimes Victorian schoolteachers have been charged with – and the state’s regulator has stepped in to keep them out of classroom.

Peter Coceani pleaded guilty to engaging in an indecent act with a minor. Picture: Supplied

Several Victorian teachers suspended by the regulator this year are facing serious criminal charges, the Herald Sun can reveal.

They are among the 45 teachers who have been suspended so far this year by the Victorian Institute of Teaching.

Those facing court include Despina Angelidis, who formerly worked at St Peter’s College in Cranbourne and North Clyde, who is facing drink driving related charges in the Frankston Magistrates’ Court in November next year.

Michelle Grant is facing charges in the Ringwood Magistrates’ Court relating to indecent assault and was suspended in October.

Former Beaconsfield Primary School teacher Nicholas O’Shea is due to face the Dandenong Magistrates’ Court in February next year after being charged with child sexual offences.

Former Beaconsfield Primary teacher Nicholas O'Shea has been charged with child-related offences. Picture: Facebook

Simon Quinn was also suspended in June and will face the Heidelberg Magistrates’ Court with charges relating to unlawful assault.

Jaspreet Tamber was suspended on an interim basis in June and is facing the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court next month over charges relating to weapons and damage to property.

Former Colac teacher Peter Coceani fronted Geelong Magistrates’ Court in May.

A former teacher who has been working at a private school in Melbourne’s northeast, is facing drug trafficking and drug possession charges and faced court in November. The Herald Sun has agreed not to name him.

Another private school sports teacher from an inner southeast college, which the Herald Sun has agreed not to name on mental health grounds, is facing charges but has not yet come before court.

Former teacher at St Kevin’s College and a string of state schools, Pierino “Peter” Forni is one of four men to face trial over a failed bid to import 549kg of cocaine from Papua New Guinea to Mareeba in July 2020. He was suspended by the VIT in March.

Disgraced Victorian teachers who have already faced court this year include Peter Coceani, a Colac Secondary College teacher who pleaded guilty in the Geelong Magistrates’ Court in May to engaging in an indecent act with a child aged between 16 and 17.

Another teacher, Timothy Cordova, had his registration cancelled in February after being sentenced in December 2022 for posing as a teen girl online to lure young boys into sending him sexualised material.

Ballarat High School teacher Troy Beggs was allegedly caught driving seven times over the legal alcohol limit in Sebastopol.

Another teacher who had his teaching registration cancelled for five years after facing criminal charges is former Eaglehawk Secondary College Ryan Geier.

Benjamin Quansah, who taught IT and English at Baden Powell College in Tarneit and the now closed Gilmore College for Girls, had his registration cancelled after he was alleged to have not disclosed to regulators that he was previously charged with the abduction and rape of a teenage girl in northwest Victoria.

Well-known Melbourne jazz identity Stephen Sedergreen is also unable to teach in Victorian schools after pleading guilty to a charge of unlawful assault.

Ballarat teacher Troy Beggs was suspended on an interim basis after he was caught driving seven times over the legal limit. The maths and science teacher at Ballarat High School, was stripped of his driving licence, slapped with a conviction and fined $2000 after pleading guilty at the Ballarat Magistrates’ Court.