By Patrick Burles - @PatrickBurles on Twitter

Lethbridge teacher admits to child porn charges

Oct 17, 2017 | 12:16 PM

LETHBRIDGE – A Lethbridge school teacher has pleaded guilty to several child pornography charges, admitting that some of the images involved students.

Dwayne Schnell entered guilty pleas to distributing, publishing and making child pornography Tuesday morning (Oct. 17) in Lethbridge Provincial Court. The offence dates against him range from December of 2014 to February of 2017.

Authorities at the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) were first tipped off by Skype in December of 2016, after the internet company noted a user sharing an image, which police determined was child pornography. The youth in the image was estimated to be between 11 and 13 years of age.

Yahoo then reported that seven images – again determined to be child pornography – had been shared by one of their users. The IP address on the account matched that of the Skype user, and the youth was also estimated to be between 11 and 13.

After obtaining a warrant, police searched Schnell’s home in Lethbridge on Feb. 22, 2017. Police told Schnell why they were there, and he told officers that he was responsible.

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An examination of Schnell’s electronic devices revealed numerous online chats of a sexual nature with girls who appeared to be under the age of 18, in which he shared images of child porn.

As the investigation continued, police searched a Dropbox account that belonged to Schell. On the account they discovered 150 images of students that were taken without their knowledge, and which were determined to be child pornography. Another 55 child porn images of another youth were also found during the search.

“As a result of what was found in the Dropbox accounts, there was further investigation conducted to determine the identity of some of the children in the images that were contained in the Dropbox account, and that led to the discovery of several students, or the identification I should say of several students,” said special prosecutor Carolyn Ayre, while speaking to the media outside the courthouse.

“From the angle that I’ve seen the images, I don’t think that they would have consented,” she added.

After those facts were read in and admitted to by Schnell, defence lawyer Greg White asked for a pre-sentence report for his client. As part of the forensic and psychological assessment, he specifically asked that the authors determine if Schnell is diagnosed as a pedophile. He also asked for a risk assessment to be completed.

Schnell will attend for the assessments on an out-patient basis, as he remains on bail. The conditions of his release state that he must live in Calgary with his parents, and that he have no contact with children under the age of 16 or access to the internet – with limited exceptions for both.

After Schnell was initially charged, officials with Ecole La Verendrye, where he taught, stated that he would not be teaching at the school.

The matter was then adjourned to Mar. 15, 2018, for sentencing.