Oct 30, 2008 3:02 pm US/Eastern
Winchester Teacher's Aide Faces New Sex Charges
WINCHESTER (WBZ) ―
A teacher's aide and coach at McCall Middle School in Winchester is now accused of sex crimes against six teenage girls. Prosecutors allege Christopher French used web sites like Myspace and Facebook to lure his victims.
French, 28, was first arrested over the summer on charges related to two victims. That prompted a grand jury investigation. New indictments accuse French of child rape, child enticement, and child pornography involving six girls.
Read: Details of the charges
Christopher French served as a special education teacher's aide and soccer coach at McCall. He is the son of longtime McCall Middle School principal Evander French Jr.
"These are troubling allegations against a man who abused his position as a trusted mentor to many of these young victims," District Attorney Gerry Leone said in a statement Thursday. "We allege that he engaged in a pattern of grooming these young, impressionable girls through a series of inappropriate online conversations on websites such as Facebook and Myspace. The defendant then took those conversations further by exchanging sexually explicit photos, enticing the underage girls to meet him for sexual relations, and, in one case, committing child rape against a 14-year-old girl."
According to prosecutors, some of the victims were students at McCall, others were girls French met online. The allegations cover a period of time beginning in 2005 and ending in the summer of 2008.
Christopher French has been free on bail since his arrest in June. An arraignment date on the new charges has not been set.
He was suspended without pay by the school at the time of his arrest.
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