An Adelaide sports coach who sent a teenager more than 140 Facebook messages has been banned from working with children after a tribunal found he posed an ‘unacceptable risk of harm to children’.The man sent the messages over four months, requested the teenager’s Snapchat details and on one occasion called the child at 10pm, according to findings of the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. He was acquitted in the South Australian District Court last year of communicating to make a child amenable to sexual activity after the charge was not proven beyond reasonable doubt.The Department of Human Services subsequently prohibited him from undertaking child-related work. He challenged that decision, but the tribunal upheld the ban.In its recently published ruling, the tribunal found the Facebook exchanges demonstrated an inappropriate and overly familiar pattern of contact.’The messages indicate that the applicant initiated and continued the contact, persisting even after the child asked the applicant to stop,’ the tribunal’s ruling said. In its recently published ruling, the tribunal found the Facebook exchanges demonstrated an inappropriate and overly familiar pattern of contact The coach also requested the teenager’s Snapchat details and called the child at 10pm, according to the ruling’Although there is no explicit sexual content in the Facebook conversations, the applicant’s messages show a complete lack of boundaries and a secret nature to their relationship.’In my view, the Facebook messages by themselves are enough for me to find the applicant poses an unacceptable risk of harm to children.’The coach did not deny the Facebook exchanges and accepted that his communication with the teenager was inappropriate, the tribunal heard.His request for Snapchat details and the late-night telephone call were among what the tribunal described as a series of lapses in judgement.The tribunal agreed with the department’s assessment that the conduct represented a serious breach of professional boundaries and that the messages were ‘indicative of grooming behaviour’. It also considered a previous finding of guilt for a dishonesty offence, alongside an unproven allegation of other sexual communications with the teenager.The ruling emphasised that protecting children was the paramount consideration when deciding whether someone should be permitted to undertake child-related work.The tribunal said the screening scheme was concerned with safeguarding children rather than punishing the coach.’It is a privilege and not a right to work with children,’ the ruling stated.The tribunal found that allowing the man to resume working with children at this point would not ensure their adequate protection.