Female ECE Relief Teacher Admits Charges Over Child Exploitation Material
NEWS – 3 February 2025
An unqualified teacher who had worked as a reliever at several Bay of Plenty early childhood centres has admitted to possessing a significant amount of child exploitation material.
The offending was uncovered by the Online Child Exploitation Across New Zealand (OCEANZ) team – a specialist police unit that works with the Department of Internal Affairs and Customs to identify and stop online child‑exploitation activity.
Police say there is no evidence that any children from the centres where she worked were involved, and the material was accessed through encrypted social‑media platforms.
The 22‑year‑old woman was arrested in October last year while at work at a Tauranga childcare centre.
She appeared in the Tauranga District Court last week and pleaded guilty to four representative charges of possessing objectionable material involving child exploitation.
Dr Sarah Alexander, chief advisor at the Office of Early Childhood Education, said the case highlights an important lesson for the sector.
She said a teacher’s or adult’s gender is not a safeguard, and strong child‑protection policies and practices are essential in every service that cares for young children.
Read more: Reliever admits possessing 390 child abuse videos
Keep children safe in your ECE service
1. Make sure your service meets the National Code for Early Childhood Service Conduct
Section 2(d) of the Code states: “No person while providing care and education will have a personal electronic device that can take photos or videos unless the device is authorised for essential purposes (such as for communication at a time of emergency). Only service-issued electronic devices are used when taking images or videos of children. The appropriate use of service-issued electronic devices and storing of images and videos of children is clearly outlined in our policies and procedures.”
2. Have an effective complaints policy and whistle-blowing procedures at your service, for any staff or parent to report their concerns safely (anonymously and without fear)
3. Ensure your service has a robust Child Protection Policy – learn more and review and improve your current policy.
4. Have safe recruitment procedures, including using values-based interviewing techniques and questions when interviewing job applicants.
To safeguard children from abuse, learn what you can do if you are a:
- service provider or work at an ECE service
- ERO or Ministry of Education employee
- teacher education lecturer, professional support person, or visiting tutor
go to: Safeguarding Children from Abuse – Best Child Protection Practices in the ECE Context
What we have known for a long time
There is a danger for children of allowing persons providing care and education to have personal camera phones or technology that could be used to take and transmit images of children.
It is commonly believed that women do not engage in paedophilia and that only men abuse young children – however this is not true.
Read details of a case in the UK from nearly 20 years ago that we have warned for many years could happen here in NZ early childhood services. It involved a teacher who was a married woman and mother, who was described as the kind of person you could trust. She took indecent pictures of children, including bathroom pics, at the early childhood centre she worked at, using her mobile phone and shared the pics online. The abuse went unnoticed at the centre and only an accidental discovery by a businessman, whose partner stumbled across the images on a computer, brought the abuse to light resulting in prosecution.
Read details of a case in Australia. In 2024, a qualified childcare worker was formally convicted of offences committed at childcare centres where he worked between Jan 2007 and Aug 2022. They included 190 charges of unlawful and indecent dealing with a child under 12 under his care, 28 counts of rape, 67 counts of making child exploitation material, four counts of producing child exploitation material and a count of distributing child exploitation material. He was also charged with possessing child exploitation material between 2005 and 2022, using a carriage service for that purpose.
