Trainee teacher found guilty of grooming boy revealed as Petra Shasha

CONTENT WARNING: This article refers to child abuse.

The name of the trainee teacher found guilty of having an abusive ‘relationship’ with an underage boy can be reported after court orders were lifted this week.

Petra Shasha was 24 when she met the 15-year-old boy while working as a short-term prac teacher at his school, St Edmund’s College in Canberra, as part of her studies for university in late 2020.

She left the college and started work at another, but the pair started talking on social media and she went on to send him explicit photos and money, and gave him lifts in her car.

Shasha, now aged 28, pleaded not guilty when her ACT Supreme Court trial started last month, but it ended with jurors finding her guilty of four charges.

These were the persistent sexual abuse of a child, grooming, committing an act of indecency and supplying pornographic material to a young person.

She was found not guilty of two other charges.

When Shasha testified, she claimed she believed the boy was 16 at the time and felt “awful, foolish” when she found his school ID in her car with his birthday on it, which proved he was 15.

She said she only sent more explicit photographs of herself to the boy after he turned 16, in addition to sending him earlier photographs of her cleavage.

Jurors heard the boy reportedly showed explicit photos or videos of her to his then-girlfriend, friend and brother.

When she was arrested in 2022, the boy told his mother, “I can’t live without her”. He went on to tell police that he and Shasha had never actually had sex.

While media were able to report her name when she was arrested, her name and the name of the college were suppressed as the court proceedings progressed.

However, the ABC successfully applied to lift these suppression orders in the ACT Supreme Court on Tuesday (1 October).

Acting Justice John Burns said there appeared to be no real reason why the non-publication orders should continue and he revoked them, allowing media to publish the names of Shasha and St Edmund’s College.

The matter was adjourned for sentencing to begin on 4 February 2025. Shasha is on bail.

If this story has raised any concerns for you, 1800RESPECT, the national 24-hour sexual assault, family and domestic violence counselling line, can be contacted on 1800 737 732. Help and support are also available through the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre on 02 6247 2525, the Domestic Violence Crisis Service ACT 02 6280 0900, the Sexual Violence Legal Services on 6257 4377 and Lifeline on 13 11 14. In an emergency, call Triple Zero.