Former Saskatoon teacher Rhett Lundgren was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to child pornography and child exploitation offences.
The judge accepted a joint submission from the Crown and defence on Monday at Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench.
Lundgren will serve 20 months for a child luring offence in Alberta and a 16 month consecutive sentence for making arrangements to commit a sexual offence against a child.
He also received two concurrent sentences: six months for attempting to access child pornography and 12 months for possession of child pornography.
Lundgren, a former Walter Murray Collegiate teacher, was arrested in December 2016 following an online undercover police investigation.
While chatting online with an undercover officer, Lundgren clicked on three links sent from the officer which contained child pornography, but Lundgren was unable to connect to each webpage.
The undercover officer also chatted with Lundgren about his fictitious eight-year-old niece.
WATCH BELOW: Former Saskatoon teacher Rhett Lundgren facing child pornography charges
The two made a plan to go to a Saskatoon public pool with the young girl and Lundgren arranged to expose and touch himself near the girl; however, Lundgren never attended and suggested to meet another day.
Lundgren was arrested shortly afterward. A search warrant was executed and his cell phone and laptop were seized.
Police found child pornography on Lundgren’s laptop, including nine images and nine videos involving children ranging in age from two to 14-years-old.
In November 2018, Lundgren pleaded guilty to three charges: arranging to commit a sexual offence against a child, attempting to access child pornography and possessing child pornography.
The 41-year-old was also sentenced for a child luring charge in Alberta, after entering a guilty plea in front of the judge on Monday morning.
According to an agreed statement of facts, Lundgren had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old Grade 12 student at Red Deer high school where he was teaching in 2009.
The two communicated for approximately three months starting in the spring of 2009.
The conversation started over Facebook Messenger and eventually they ended up talking nightly on the phone, seeing each other daily, and having consensual sex.
“Children are still children. Up until the age of 18, they do not have the ability to make decisions as adults, and so we provide them protections as society under the criminal code to make sure that those vulnerabilities are not exploited by adults,” Crown prosecutor Lana Morelli said.
“Someone who is 17, or 18 can consent to sexual activity. The circumstances surrounding that consent has to be taken into consideration, whether or not they’re a teacher, how that communication came to be.”
-With files from Global’s Ryan Kessler
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