N.S. school teacher pleads guilty to sex offences

A Nova Scotia school teacher has pleaded guilty to five charges related to sex offences against at least one student.

Nicole MacLeod, 37, of Murray Siding, N.S., had been facing trial on seven charges and was in Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Truro on Tuesday to set trial dates on those charges.

But instead, MacLeod entered guilty pleas to two counts of sexual interference, one count of invitation to sexual touching, one of luring by a telecommunications device and one of breach of conditions.

The bulk of the charges were laid in June 2024 but the breach charge stemmed from an incident last November when MacLeod allegedly violated her release conditions by contacting a victim.

MacLeod was a teacher at Tatamagouche Regional Academy, a combined elementary, junior and senior high school, when RCMP started their investigation. She was placed on leave when the complaints first surfaced and her name is no longer on the school directory.

RCMP said when the initial charges were announced that MacLeod was accused of sexually assaulting one student on multiple occasions in May and June of 2024.

She was also accused of sending explicit pictures to that student and "at least one other," the RCMP news release said.

MacLeod is scheduled to be sentenced in July.