22 March 2022

Student-teacher Petra Shasha pleads not guilty to allegedly grooming boy

| Albert McKnight
Petra Shasha leaving court

Petra Shasha (right) leaves court with her lawyer Rachel Fisher (left) from Kamy Saeedi Law on Monday. Photo: Albert McKnight.

A student-teacher accused of child sex offences against a young teen has been handed an additional charge alleging she groomed a boy.

Petra Shasha, 26, entered not guilty pleas to all three charges through her lawyer, Rachel Fisher from Kamy Saeedi Law, when she appeared in the ACT Magistrates Court on Monday (21 March).

She was charged with committing an act of indecency on a person aged between 10 and 16, as well as using a carriage service to transmit indecent material to a person under 16 when she first appeared before the court in February.

Her new charge of grooming a young person alleges she encouraged a boy to commit an act of a sexual nature between months in 2020 and 2021.

Originally, ACT Policing said they had received a report of an allegedly inappropriate relationship between a female student teacher and a male student in December 2021.

Police raided a home in Gowrie on 20 February 2022 where they arrested Ms Shasha.

On Monday, Magistrate Robert Cook continued Ms Shasha’s bail and listed the matter for a pre-hearing mention in June.

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