20.05.12

Updated, 4:15 p.m. | A school aide in Queens was arrested Thursday on charges of sexually abusing six 9- and 10-year-old girls at the school, becoming the fifth city school worker charged in the last few weeks with sexual crimes against children.

The aide, Brett Picou, 30, of Public School 52 in Springfield Gardens, is awaiting arraignment on seven felony counts of sexual abuse, one felony count of repeated sexual abuse of a child and seven misdemeanor counts of forcible touching, the Queens district attorney’s office said.

Over the last four months, Mr. Picou, 30, touched the buttocks of the students through their clothes, said Kevin Ryan, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office.

On some occasions, Mr. Ryan said, Mr. Picou hugged the girls, then moved his hands down their backs to their buttocks. On others, he grabbed their buttocks as they walked up the stairs, and in one instance, he slapped a girl’s buttocks, Mr. Ryan said. A teacher who overheard girls talking about the touching notified the police, Mr. Ryan said.

Source: New York Times (blog)