Oil City Teacher Waives Hearing in Student Sex Case

| May 10, 2017

shaun-mcloughlin-picFRANKLIN, Pa. (EYT) – An Oil City High School teacher accused of having a sexual relationship with a female student at the school waived his preliminary hearing Monday morning.

Further proceedings in the case against Shaun McLoughlin, 39, of Franklin, will occur in the Venango County Court of Common Pleas.

McLoughlin, an English teacher at the middle school, faces one third-degree felony count of Corruption of Minors, Defendant Aged 18 or Above.

According to police, McLoughlin allegedly had sex with the victim on school grounds.

The following statement was received by Chief Wenner of the Oil City Police Department Friday, May 5, 2017:

The Oil City Police Department has reached the conclusion of a long-term, thorough investigation into alleged sexual misconduct by Oil City High School teacher, Shaun Kevin McLoughlin, 39, of Franklin.

The investigation began in August 2016 via a report from Venango County Children and Youth Services and did culminate with the arrest of McLoughlin.

Sometime between November 2014 and April 2017, in the City of Oil City, McLoughlin, then 37 years of age at the onset of the crime(s), did engage in a course of misconduct, which tended to corrupt the morals of a then 16-year-old female student. McLoughlin encouraged the minor to conspire with him to further their relationship over the prolonged period of time.

McLoughlin engaged in a mental, emotional, and physically intimate relationship with the victim, which did turn sexual in nature after she reached her 17th birthday.

The acts occurred on the Oil City Senior High School property, both during the school day and after, while McLoughlin was engaged in his duties as a teacher/instructor. Further, McLoughlin met with the victim in person in Huntingdon, Centre, and Allegheny counties, continuing their physical relations while she was both a minor, and into adulthood, after her departure from the Oil City School District in the spring of 2015.

McLoughlin devised a system for them to communicate covertly, with the intent of their relationship remaining undiscovered, using various encrypted text-based messaging, picture, chat, video, and cloud-based mobile applications. In addition to the applications, McLoughlin and the victim used alternative email addresses and phones to contact each other. In many instances, these communications were of a sexual nature.

Oil City Police collected evidence, information, and facts through a process of investigation which included forensic interviews of the victim at the Mt. Nittany Health Child Advocacy Center in Penn State, video and audio recorded statement of admission collected from McLoughlin in the presence of his council, voluntary digital and paper record submission by the victim, and search warrant(s) service for digital records held by the email/applications servers.

A preliminary arraignment resulted in $100,000.00 unsecured bail, with the additional condition of electronic GPS monitoring by Venango Co. Court Supervision Services.


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