Teacher’s indecent hotel attack on child:court
A teacher allegedly indecently mistreated a child for more than a year at several places across the Gold Coast, including a popular shopping centre and hotel.
Hayley Maree Cassell, of Hope Island, was charged in June with 74 offences of indecent treatment of a child.
Police also charged her with a string of other offences, including grooming and attempting to pervert justice.
The charges stemmed from a Gold Coast Child Protection and Investigation Unit investigation into allegations made by a woman who complained to police about the alleged indecent treatment when she was a teenager.
The 32-year-old is facing 74 charges of indecent treatment of a child under 16, and one count each of grooming, observations or recordings in breach of privacy and attempting to pervert justice.
Police allege in court documents the offences took place in various locations across the Gold Coast, including Australia Fair in Southport, a hotel and several home addresses.
The court documents stated the grooming charges allegedly occurred between January 27, 2015 and July 28, 2016, where she “engaged in conduct” in relation to a person under 16 “with intent to facilitate the procurement … to engage in a sexual act”.
Another indecent treatment offence is alleged to have taken place in Brisbane, according to court documents.
Her charge of attempting to pervert justice involves her allegedly making a false statement on oath for a judicial proceeding on July 10, 2017.
Ms Cassell, who remains on bail, was not required to attend Southport Magistrates Court when her matter was briefly mentioned on Thursday.
Magistrate Kerry Magee ordered a brief of evidence be disclosed to Ms Cassell’s lawyer, Thomas McKee, by November 2.
The matter will be mentioned again on November 11.
Ms Cassell is yet to enter any plea and remains on bail, where she’s required to report to police weekly and can’t have any unsupervised contact, directly or indirectly, with a child under 16.
Previously, she was ordered to surrender her passport and blue card as part of her bail conditions.
