Barnet Council has written to concerned parents after a youth worker was suspended following an allegation of serious sexual offences.
Eugine Charlesworth, 37, of Wolsey Grove in Burnt Oak, was arrested by police on November 20 in connection with an alleged incident on November 18 or 19.
He appeared at Hendon Magistrates Court on November 21 charged with serious sexual offences and was granted bail to appear again in January.
Barnet Council immediately suspended Charlesworth, who has worked for eight years at the Church Farm Youth Centre off Church Hill Road in East Barnet.
The alleged incident did not take place while Charlesworth was at work, the council said.
Annabel Coakley, public relations manager for Barnet Council, said it remained confident in its screening process for employees. "Everyone who passes these doors and will ever work with children will have to have a police check that is always done," she said.
Church Farm Youth Centre runs youth clubs and schemes for nine to 18-year-olds and the youth service has written to parents of children who use the centre to explain what has happened.
Councillor Anne Jarvis, cabinet member for children, said: "We are shocked and deeply concerned that someone in a position of trust and the care of young people has been charged with these crimes.
"We would like to re-assure families that the welfare and safety of children and young people are our top priorities and we will continue our investigation [into the alleged offences] until we are satisfied we have all the facts."
If you are concerned about the allegation, call the council's youth office on 020 8359 3026.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article