Leading sports figure working at Top End school charged with having sex with female student
A well-known figure in the Northern Territory’s sporting scene has been accused of having sex with a teenage girl he met through his work at a Top End school. Read the latest.
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A Northern Territory athlete’s alleged texts to a teenage girl have been handed to the courts amid a child abuse investigation into his work at a Top End school.
On Friday, the well-known sport figure and school employee appeared before Darwin Local Court charged with having sexual intercourse with a young person, while he was a person in a position of authority.
The well-known sports figure cannot be legally identified at this stage, as the Northern Territory is the only jurisdiction in Australia which automatically suppresses the identity of alleged sexual offenders until they are either sent to the Supreme Court or plead guilty.
NT Police have alleged the man in his 30s was employed at a Top End school when he started a sexual relationship with a student.
He was arrested and charged on Thursday, and detectives from the Child Abuse Taskforce confirmed their investigation into the incident was ongoing.
On Friday afternoon prosecutor Hana Seraphim said the investigation had allegedly uncovered a number of texts between the school employee and a teenage girl, with copies of their messages formally tendered to the court.
Defence lawyer Ruby Stewart said her client was hoping to be released on bail, however Ms Austin said she was unwilling to rush the prosecution into a bail application involving “very serious allegation, with a defendant in custody, and a child complainant involved”.
Ms Stewart also pushed for the judge to close the courts to protect the alleged victim.
“By the nature of the allegations and the specific context in which the parties know each other, does inherently risk identifying her,” she said.
However Ms Austin said the allegations were already in the “public arena”, suggesting that the lawyer’s “concerns appear to be about the complainant, when really they’re about your client”.
“I often close the courts, that’s not a problem, but I won’t necessarily just do that because there's important protections that are already in place about suppressing (identities),” she said.
Ms Austin adjourned the matter to Monday, April 7, for a bail application.
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Originally published as Leading sports figure working at Top End school charged with having sex with female student
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