Expat teacher arrested in molestation

A teacher at the Lycee Francais de Shanghai has been arrested with approval of prosecutors after being accused of abusing six students - five French and one Italian from six to 10 years old - at school.

US citizen David D McMahon, 32, an English teacher, was arrested for child molesting by Shanghai police, official announced yesterday.

The suspect made the victims, four girls and two boys, take off their clothes after he took them to the library or an unoccupied space at the school, telling them he was going to check their homework, the Shanghai prosecution authority stated on its website yesterday. A six-year-old American student told police that he saw McMahon molesting a classmate.

If proven guilty, McMahon likely would be sentenced to at least five years in prison in China, according to the Chinese law, officials said.

McMahon was reported by one of the French girls and her mother on May 12. The victim said her English teacher had molested her several times since September. He was detained the next day.

A colleague of McMahon, also an American and described as a friend of McMahon's, was extradited to the United States at the end of last year on similar charges, officials said.