A woman has admitted committing child sex offences against two girls who worked at a Canberra business she owned and managed.
The 28-year-old suburb Gungahlin woman, who cannot be named in order to protect the identities of the victims, pleaded guilty to five charges when she faced the ACT Magistrates Court on Thursday.
In relation to one of the victims, a girl aged 15 when the offences were committed in 2019, the woman admitted three counts of committing an act of indecency on a young person under special care.
The offender also pleaded guilty to charges of sexual intercourse with a young person under special care and committing an act of indecency on a young person under special care.
Those charges were laid over crimes committed in 2021 against a second teenage girl, who had worked for her at the same Gungahlin business prior to the defendant selling it earlier this year.
The woman faces a further 14 child sex charges, which defence lawyer Tim Sharman told the court were the subject of ongoing negotiations with prosecutors.
These include more of the same offences to which she has pleaded guilty, as well as allegations of grooming and possessing child abuse material.
The woman was initially remanded in custody following her arrest in late September, when magistrate Robert Cook said it seemed she knew her behaviour was wrong but she "can't help herself".
She was eventually granted bail in October.
Chief Magistrate Lorraine Walker varied some of the 28-year-old's bail conditions on Thursday, including by adding a requirement that she surrender any passports she holds.
While the facts of the woman's offending are yet to be agreed, police alleged at the time of her arrest that she had kissed the first victim at work on three occasions and admitted this to investigators.
Police also described, in documents previously tendered to the court, how the second victim's grandmother had found "instamatic" pictures, one of which showed the offender kissing that girl.
The woman is due to face court again on February 14.
