Catholic school coach accused of indecent liberties with students

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. — Prosecutors say a local football coach used a fake social media profile to trick young players into sending him nude photos.

Jonathan Henderson faced a judge for the first time Monday.

Investigators say the case involves students from Christ the King Catholic High School near Huntersville.

On Monday Channel 9 learned that Henderson is charged with taking indecent liberties with two students at the school in May of last year while he was an assistant football coach at Christ the King.

In a note to families, school officials say they have not been informed of the exact nature of the offenses but that, “Mr. Henderson was terminated in June after CTK administrators learned that he was holding unsanctioned football training sessions with some of our players off campus and outside of our normal operations, and that he had used unsanctioned communications channels to arrange these sessions.”

He was fired from Christ the King last June for the unsanctioned training and communications, but school leaders say it wasn’t until September that players told them those communications were inappropriate and sexually explicit, and that they were still happening.

In court Monday, prosecutors said at some point Henderson set up a fake account to get his football players to send nude photographs.

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By September, Henderson had become a volunteer assistant coach for a different team at the Community School of Davidson. School leaders also sent out a note to families saying that in late September, school officials at Christ the King learned new information and reached out to them.

They say they, “immediately removed him from his volunteer assistant coach position, instructed him not to have any contact with CSD student-athletes nor be on any CSD campus for any reason.”

Henderson passed background checks at both CTK and CSD. Both schools say he was just a coach, not a teacher.

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