Disgraced Teacher Sentenced for Sexually Assaulting 15-Year-Old Student

Abuse of Trust and Betrayal of Ethics

Petra Shasha, a 28-year-old for­mer trainee teacher, has been found guilty of sex­u­al­ly abus­ing, groom­ing, and inde­cent­ly assault­ing a 15-year-old stu­dent at a high school in the Aus­tralian Cap­i­tal Territory. 

The court heard how Shasha betrayed her posi­tion of trust and author­i­ty to cul­ti­vate an inap­pro­pri­ate rela­tion­ship with the young boy.

Premeditated Grooming Tactics

Pros­e­cu­tors revealed that Shasha sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly groomed the 15-year-old stu­dent by show­er­ing him with gifts, mon­ey, and design­er clothes.

She would also give him lifts and spend time with him in pub­lic, care­ful­ly plan­ning how to avoid detec­tion of their illic­it relationship.

Indecent Assault and Explicit Communications

The court heard that Shasha inde­cent­ly assault­ed the boy on two occa­sions, once in a depart­ment store chang­ing room and anoth­er time in a car.

She also admit­ted to send­ing the 15-year-old numer­ous explic­it videos and pho­tos of her­self, though she claimed to have a “rea­son­able belief” he was old­er at the time.

Sentencing and Ongoing Proceedings

Shasha was found guilty of per­sis­tent sex­u­al abuse of a child, sup­ply­ing porno­graph­ic mate­r­i­al to a young per­son, groom­ing, and com­mit­ting an act of inde­cen­cy on a child. She remains on bail and will be sen­tenced in Feb­ru­ary 2025.