The Ministry of Education has sent out a traumatic incident team after the fresh revelation Palmerston North man Malachai Wylie worked as a student teacher in the Manawatu region.
A Newshub investigation revealed how ex-Palmerston North Number One Shoes employee Wylie has allegedly been secretly taking candid photos of coworkers and customers and performed lewd acts in their shoes. These pictures were then posted to shoe fetish websites.
He has since been arrested and charged with two counts of offensive behaviour and one of theft.
Newshub also found other threads and social media pages dating back to his time as a high school student.
It appears that for the past half-decade, Wylie has been running a network of porn, fetish and Facebook pages, soliciting and posting images from as many as 250 teen girls - then posting their contact details to his followers.
Newshub has been contacted by over 30 people alleging they were victims of this behaviour, and some of them were Wylie’s own students.
While studying to be a secondary school teacher at Massey University in Palmerston North last year, Wylie worked as a student teacher in Manawatu high schools.
A girl from Longburn Adventist College told Newshub she was targeted by an account Newshub believes was run by Wylie. The message asked for pictures of shoes while he was her teacher.
"He was a student teacher from Massey University and my friends and I would talk to him quite a lot and joke around. There was always something off about him though," she told Newshub.
"Me and some of my friends received a message from somebody called 'Ella Brookes' on Facebook asking for photos of shoes for an art project for school.
"My friends and I talked about it at school about how weird this request was but since we understood the stress and pressure to get assignments done some of us agreed to send photos of our shoes."
The student says she sent one photo, and after this kept receiving messages asking her for more shoe photos. She then "felt a bit weird about it" and blocked the account.
"I feel very violated knowing what the real intentions with the shoe photos were," she says.
Another former student at Longburn Adventist College told Newshub Wylie taught at her high school for several months starting August last year.
It was during this period that she received a Facebook message from the 'Ella Brookes' account allegedly used by Wylie to harvest shoe pictures from his victims. She was 17 at the time.
"Last year a girl messaged me asking if I could send her photos of my shoes for an art project, as weird as it seemed, it was pretty believable.
"She went by the name of Ella Brookes and had many photos and friends so didn't seem like a fake account," she said.
Several of her friends also were contacted, and subsequently had their photos uploaded to the site.
"I feel a bit shocked and betrayed because he was a cool guy," she said. "I wouldn't have expected this kind of behaviour from anyone.
On Tuesday Newshub was sent screenshots of a message sent to parents and caregivers from Freyberg High School Principal Peter Brooks.
"This young man was a student teacher at Freyberg High School and some other schools in the Manawatu last year and we have been made aware that some students may be affected when they see his photo in the news and read about his activities. They may have been contacted by him or an alias through social media," he wrote.
"If your son or daughter feel they are a victim of this man in any way, please contact me or the counsellors at school and we can offer support.
"You can be assured that we are working closely with the Ministry of Education and the police to support students in every way that we can."
In a statement to Newshub the school's principal Brendan van Oostveen said:
"Malachai Wylie was a student teacher at Longburn Adventist College for a short period of time towards the end of last year and is no longer here.
"We have communicated with parents in the school community around the details associated with this man and his role as a student teacher.
"The school community has also been given the opportunity to seek ongoing support from the school and Police."
Katrina Casey, deputy secretary sector enablement and support at the Ministry of Education, provided a statement to Newshub.
"This is distressing for those involved, particularly when the person has held a position of trust. All students deserve to feel safe at school and we are working closely with the schools affected and the Police to support students and staff," she said.
"We were approached by a school in Palmerston North and our traumatic incident team was on site yesterday and will be available for as long as needed. Another school has also sought advice from us and we met with them today. We are available to provide support and guidance whenever required."
