Missouri teacher 'hired hitman to kill seven-year-old boy he molested'

The teacher is accused of attempting to order the child's murder from jail

A former teacher accused of molesting a seven-year-old student has pleaded not guilty to charges that he attempted to hire a hitman from jail to kill the alleged victim and his family.

Deonte Taylor, a 36-year-old who previously worked as a teachers aide at Lusher Elementary in St Louis, Missouri, was accused of sexually abusing a young boy in 2015.

Mr Taylor, who is HIV-positive, also faces two counts of conspiracy to commit murder and two counts of tampering with a witness in a felony prosecution.

He is alleged to have conspired with his 66-year-old boyfriend, Michael Johnson, who also faces the same charges.

Authorities say the sex crime happened three years ago but Mr Taylor wasn’t charged until November with three counts of sodomy.

The charges allege Mr Johnson and Mr Taylor agreed to pay someone to kill the boy and his mother to prevent them from testifying.

Prosecutors say the men paid a confidential informant.

Mr Taylor went on to become a fifth-grade teacher at in the Ferguson-Florissant School District at Walnut Grove Elementary school. administrators there told local news outlets he “went through the same process that all of our teaching candidates go through” but nothing showed up on his criminal background check or sexual abuse registry background check.

According to Missouri’s KSDK news channel, Mr Taylor continued receiving income from the school for a period of time while behind bars.

The family of his alleged victim, who is now 10-years-old, have created a GoFundMe page to recover expenses from over the years surrounding the case.

Additional reporting by AP