Updated ,first published
A Sydney school teacher has been charged with grooming a 14-year-old girl online.
Police last week received a report Benjamin David Collinge, 29, had encouraged the teenager to send sexually explicit material in exchange for money when the pair were communicating on social media.
At about 5:45am on Thursday, detectives conducted a search at an address in Beecroft, in Sydney’s north, and arrested Collinge.
He was taken to Gladesville Police Station, where he was charged with using a carriage service to groom a minor and using a carriage service to access child abuse material.
The arrest was conducted as part of Strike Force Trawler, an ongoing investigation by the state’s Sex Crimes Squad Child Exploitation Unit into sexual abuse and exploitation of children on the internet.
Collinge was refused bail and will face court on Thursday.
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