A 32-year-old geography teacher, Deandra Kontou, has been charged over the alleged grooming and sexual abuse of a boy under 16 while she worked at Newington College, an elite all-boys private school in Sydney. She faces nine charges in total. All allegations are unproven and before the courts.
Newington College, in the Sydney suburb of Stanmore, is a prestigious all-boys private school charging more than $33,000 a year in tuition. Kontou was employed there from 2017 to 2019 and resigned after the alleged conduct came to light. Since 2024 she had been teaching history, geography, and society and culture at Georges River College Senior Campus in Oatley, a public school, until her arrest. Police stress the charges do not relate to her recent employment, and she faces no allegations of wrongdoing in the past two years.
Prosecutors and court documents allege the abuse spanned roughly six months in 2017, with most incidents occurring in the school's Stanmore building during school hours. Kontou allegedly showed the student indecent material to make it easier to "procure the child for unlawful sexual activity," groomed him through messages, and twice coerced him into sexual touching or sex acts without consent.
The most serious allegations concern a senior boys' camp to Fitzroy Island in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, about 1,200 miles from Sydney. Court documents allege she twice sexually touched the boy during the day and sexually assaulted him between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. that evening. Outlets disagree on the year of the trip — the New York Post dates the conduct to 2017, while The Sun dates the trip to 2019.
The case surfaced when the boy shared the allegation with another teacher on the trip, triggering Kontou's immediate separation from the travelling party. She was subsequently suspended by Newington's senior staff and resigned when offered the chance to explain her alleged conduct, leaving mid-term.
According to charge lists compiled by the Sydney Morning Herald and Nine, Kontou faces nine charges, including aggravated sexual assault of a victim under her authority. The school has not issued a public statement on the case.
It bears emphasis that these are prosecution allegations only; Kontou has not entered a plea, and the matter awaits trial.