Text messages allegedly snared Sydney teacher charged with child sex abuse

A northern beaches family’s policy of phones on the table led investigators to discover an “inappropriate relationship” between a 15-year-old and his drama teacher, police will allege in court.

Ella Clements, a 24-year-old drama teacher at St Augustine’s College, Brookvale, was arrested on September 16 and this week faced court charged with a raft of sex offences against one of her students.

The Herald can reveal that the father of the victim – whose identity is protected by law as a child victim of crime and cannot be named – allegedly discovered text messages between Clements and his 15-year-old son as the boy’s phone sat on the dining room table.

Clements is now facing three counts of aggravated sexual intercourse with a child between 14 and 16 years old, and intentionally sexually touching a child between 10 and 16, two weeks after she was arrested following allegations she engaged in an “inappropriate relationship” with a student in her care.

Clements had worked at the Catholic school for at least a year before the allegations came to light.

Clements studied to be a drama teacher at the University of Notre Dame after serving as drama captain in her final year at Brigidine College St Ives, an all-girls Catholic secondary school.

She performed in several musicals while at Brigidine, including the lead in a school production of Animal Farm, and had been invited back to the school in the years since her 2018 graduation to assist students with their drama performances.

On Monday, she was granted bail by the magistrate on conditions including a $100,000 surety, not having any contact with staff or students at the college, not using a smartphone or social media, living at an address in the state’s Northern Rivers with her parents, not leaving home between 9pm and 5am, and reporting to police every Sunday.

Police initially applied for the decision to be stayed – effectively pausing Clements’ release – pending a hearing in the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday. However, the Director of Public Prosecutions declined to pursue that application, and it was withdrawn on Wednesday, a Supreme Court spokesperson said.

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).

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