Former Winnipeg teacher now charged with sexually assaulting, exploiting student in after-school program

Posted on November 8, 2024 by Peggy

WARNING: This article contains discussion of sexual exploitation and abuse.

A former Winnipeg teacher who was employed as recently as this past spring has been charged with having a sexually exploitative relationship with a student in an after-school program where he was a support worker.

Matthew James Mousseau, 37, is alleged to have groomed the woman when she was a teenager attending the program in the Seven Oaks School Division between May 2019 and August 2020, Winnipeg Police Service spokesperson Const. Dani McKinnon said at a news conference Friday morning.

The survivor, who is now an adult, “bravely came forward to make this report” after seeing news last month that Mousseau had been charged with multiple voyeurism, child pornography and sexual exploitation offences, McKinnon said.

Mousseau now faces additional charges of sexual assault and sexual exploitation in relation to the most recent allegations against him. He was arrested on Sunday and detained in custody, police said.

Investigators determined Mousseau worked as a teacher in several Winnipeg schools until May 2024. No other survivors have come forward to date, but “there’s always the potential” for others, said McKinnon.

Tony Kreml, superintendent of the Seven Oaks School Division, said Mousseau worked in the division as an educational assistant from September 2016 to June 2018 and as a student-parent support worker from August 2018 to October 2020.

“Given this is a police investigation the division is not able to provide further comment,” Kreml said in an email.

Last month, Mousseau was charged and accused of making video recordings in April 2023 and May 2024 of children and adults in various stages of undress in the family change room of a public pool in the city’s Maples neighbourhood.

During the investigation, information came to light that led police to believe Mousseau had also “inappropriately engaged” with a student while he was teaching at a high school in the North End, police said at the time.

Mousseau was arrested on Oct. 2 and charged with sexual assault, sexual exploitation, voyeurism, possession of child pornography and accessing child pornography.

Winnipeg School Division superintendent Matt Henderson previously told CBC Mousseau worked for the division from 2021 until he resigned on May 7, 2024, and confirmed he was employed as the division’s Indigenous way of life teacher.

Because it involves a criminal investigation and personnel matter, Henderson said the division couldn’t provide any more information.

Police said at the time they didn’t know how many people were recorded in the pool change room, but that the number of sexual abuse images and videos recovered from Mousseau’s phone was in the hundreds.

The investigation began when police were alerted to that child sexual abuse imagery on Mousseau’s cellphone, but police would not go into details about how that happened.

For anyone who has been sexually exploited or assaulted, there is support available through crisis lines and local support services via the Ending Violence Association of Canada database. If you’re in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911.