A senior police officer who gave cyber safety lectures as a youth liaison officer at Sutherland Shire and St George schools has been charged with multiple child sex offences, spanning a period of more than 10 years.
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Senior Constable Dean Michael Perkins, 43, from Mt Druitt Area Command has been suspended since his arrest shortly before 4pm on Thursday.
He was arrested by detectives from the Professional Standards Command assisted by the State Crime Command’s Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Squad.
He has been charged with an aggravated act of indecency, two counts of aggravated indecent assault, attempted sexual intercourse with a child under 10, grooming a child under 14 years for unlawful sexual activity, two counts of having sexual intercourse with a child aged 10 to 14 and peeping or prying.
The charges relate to offences that allegedly occurred between 2007 and 2018 in western Sydney.
As an officer in the NSW Police specialist youth command, Senior Constable Perkins has given educational talks on cyber safety and bullying to students at Endeavour Sports High School at Caringbah and Aquinas Catholic College in Menai.
He also gave talks at St Mary & St Mina's Coptic Orthodox College at Rockdale and at western Sydney schools such as St Dominic's College in Kingswood, the Australian Islamic College of Sydney, and Nepean Creative and Performing Arts High School.
A Endeavour Sports High School, "students learnt about the repercussions of cyber-bullying, password protection, the dangers of befriending people online and basically anything about creating our digital reputation", read a post on the school's Facebook account.
According to the St Dominic's website, a talk delivered by the officer at the school in July included topics such as "social media misuse ... protecting yourself online, bullying, sexting ... [and] the law regarding cybercrimes and digital reputation".
As recently as three months ago the officer gave a presentation at the Australian Islamic College of Sydney, where he provided students with "a wealth of tips and techniques to prevent any incident or harm".
Senior Constable Perkins is also listed as the police liaison officer for the NSW Department of Education and Communities Anti-Bullying Plan.
He has been refused bail and is due to appear at Penrith Local Court on Friday.
The Department of Education directed all questions about the role of youth liaison officers to NSW Police.
A spokeswoman for NSW Police said she could not comment while the case was before the courts.
The current matters before the court are not related to the officer’s employment.
Fairfax Media
