A 29-year-old man who worked as both a primary school teacher and a babysitter across Perth has been jailed for sexual offending against children.
Kurt David Charlton advertised his services as a babysitter online before being left in charge of young children – including babies – while their parents were not home.
He had both a working with children check and a police clearance.
He then took indecent photos of nine of the children – all under the age of 13 – some while they were undressed. He also touched some of them inappropriately.
The offending happened over a four-month period between the end of 2024 and early 2025 before he was arrested.
Charlton’s wife was pregnant with their first child at the time.
During his sentencing on Thursday in the WA District Court, prosecutors said Charlton was “highly intelligent” and had studied engineering at university before switching to teaching “to have free access to children”.
Charlton began working in primary schools in early 2024.
He then offered his services as a babysitter, taking care of one 18-month-old child regularly. He was directed not to bathe her but did so anyway, taking photographs of her at the same time.
Another family had two children aged four and six. He went to their Alkimos home to babysit them for the day and was told not to allow them to swim in the family’s pool, but he did anyway, setting up his mobile phone to record him interacting with the children in the water.
He later undressed and showered both of the children, taking multiple photographs of them.
On another occasion, he was babysitting siblings aged two and three and took them to Maylands water park where he took them to the public toilets and undressed them. He took 46 images of them at that time.
Another one of Charlton’s victims was a child he taught at a Perth primary school. He took indecent photos of her, sickening the girl’s father who told the court he had deliberately asked for her to be moved into Charlton’s class believing he was a good teacher.
“I live every day with the guilt of knowing that by trying to protect her, I put her into harm’s way,” he said in a letter read to the court.
In total there were nine victims across seven families.
Judge Martin Flynn said the images were “confronting” and showed the “stark vulnerability” of the children.
One of the victims’ fathers wrote to the court ahead of Charlton’s sentencing and said he had suffered “profound isolation” dealing with the impact of his offending because he did not want to share with family members what had happened, to protect his daughter when she was older.
He now suffers extreme trust issues and the girl’s mother had changed careers so she could be at home for their daughter.
Another parent said she could not come to terms with what had happened and been hospitalised with health issues in relation to the offending.
The court heard Charlton told one mother that he would not babysit her children if they were asleep. Asked why, he said he only does it because he enjoys it and if they’re asleep he can’t do that.
He was sentenced to a total of 6½ years for the combined 27 offences and will be made eligible for parole, with judge Flynn adding that he will be subject to an offender reporting regime upon his release.
