Sentencing Scheduled for Former Teacher Accused of Sexual Relationship With Student

| December 2, 2017

FRANKLIN, Pa. (EYT) – A former Oil City High School teacher who pleaded guilty to having a “physically intimate relationship” with a female student at the school is scheduled to be sentenced in court next week.

According to court documents, 39-year-old Shaun McLoughlin, of Franklin, will be sentenced at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, December 5, in the Venango County Courthouse.

McLoughlin pleaded guilty on July 31 to one count of Corruption of Minors.

The Oil City Police Department began an investigation in the case against McLoughlin in August of 2016 after receiving a report from Venango County Children and Youth Services.

Sometime between November 2014 and April 2017, 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.

According to Oil City Superintendent of Schools Pat Gavin, the school board terminated McLoughlin’s employment last year.


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