By New York Post (World News) | Created at 2026-10-08 17:00:59 | Updated at 2026-10-08 19:14:39
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A teacher at an elite private school in Australia has been accused of grooming and sexually assaulting a student under the age of 16, including during a school trip, court records show.
Deandra Kontou — a former geography teacher at the Newington College in Sydney — was charged with nine child abuse offenses for her conducting spanning six months in 2017, The Greek Herald reported.
Kontou, 32, left the prestigious private school, which costs more than $33,000 per year, in 2019 after the allegations were reported to administrators.
The former teacher, who went by Ms. Haralambidis during her time at Newington, allegedly showed indecent material to the student, messaged him, and coerced him into sexual acts, prosecutors said.
The incidents allegedly took place in the school’s Stanmore building during school hours.
Kontou was also accused of touching the student twice during a senior boys’ trip to Australia’s Fitzroy Island — some 1,200 miles from Sydney — and then sexually assaulting him.
Kontou resigned after the allegations were first raised with the school, with the teacher later being hired at public high school Georges River College in 2024.
She was arrested and was granted bail last month under the Sutherland Local Court under the condition that she surrender her passport and report to police daily, Nine.com reported. She is also banned from teaching children.
The New South Wales Department of Education has since stripped Kontou of her teaching accreditation, with the former teacher scheduled to appear in Burwood Local Court next month.
Kontou’s case comes just months after another Newington teacher, Benjamin David Collinge, was charged with grooming a 14-year-old girl online.
The Newington College said it does not condone any behavior that violates its professional standards or the law, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
The Newington College is a prestigious K-12 school that serves boys and girls at its campuses in Stanmore and Sydney.
Graduates include top government officials in Australia and royals from the Pacific island nations of Tonga an dFiji.
