A St. Paul youth is under investigation for allegedly bullying a girl at school into performing oral sex on him, snapping a photo of the activity with his cellphone and sending it out in a text.

The girl had been bullied since the start of the school year by the classmate and his friends and didn't know the photo was being taken, according to a search warrant filed in Ramsey County District Court on Thursday.

Both the suspect and victim are under 16, said Dennis Gerhardstein, a spokesman for the Ramsey County attorney's office. He said police have notified prosecutors that they'll be referring the case for possible charges.

The search warrant details the information, saying it was reported on March 7 by a mandated reporter. Authorities say the incident happened at 1065 Summit Av., which is the address of St. Thomas More Catholic School.

According to the search warrant, the assault and investigation unfolded this way:

The mandated reporter referred the student to the Midwest Children's Resource Center, where she disclosed to a worker that she had been bullied into performing oral sex on a classmate.

The youth told the girl that he would be nice to her if she performed oral sex on him.

Police learned the youth had also snapped the photo, unbeknown to the girl, and texted it to another classmate, who deleted it from his cellphone. That student's mother consented to a search of the phone, which showed no such image.

Police met with the accused youth for a second time. Earlier, in a police interview, he had claimed the oral sex was consensual. But in this second interview, with his mother present, he admitted to the assault and to taking the photo, according to the search warrant.

Police seized that iPhone from a home in the 500 block of W. Central Avenue on March 13.

Joy Powell • 651-925-5038