Teacher found guilty of sexting student

 
By Jennifer Saltman
A former teacher at St. John Brebeuf Regional Secondary high school in Abbotsford, B.C., was found guilty Wednesday of sending lewd texts to a student.
Martin Careen was charged with invitation to sexual touching in connection with a series of messages sent to a 17-year-old Grade 12 student in January 2009. A charge of luring was stayed during the trial.
He and other teachers were in the habit of communicating with students via email, phone and text to discuss school matters. Careen was in regular text communication with the victim from October or November of 2008 until the end of January 2009.
Telephone records show that on the evening Jan. 27, 2009, Careen and the young woman spoke on the phone and texted about an exam she was scheduled to take. Shortly after 11 p.m., the inappropriate texts began.
They content ranged from insinuations — “I always take my time and last as long as I can” — to explicit details. Some of the more suggestive ones included “Can you crawl through my window? I’ll do whatever you want” and “It would have to be first class, the hotel, the champagne, the sex.”
Careen and the teen also talked about preferred sexual positions and sexual acts. The exchange continued until almost 5 a.m.
In his decision, read in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster, Justice Terence Schultes said he did not find Careen to be a credible witness.
During that evening, Careen admitted during the trial, he did sent texts to the victim as well as two other people. However he denied sending the texts that were the subject of the charge. Careen maintained that he went to bed between 1:30 and 2 a.m., while his two sons and a nephew who was staying overnight were still up. He said he left the phone on the kitchen table.
Schultes said he found it “incredible” that someone would repeatedly take and return Careen’s phone for the purpose of sending the texts and “implausible” that someone would imitate Careen’s texting style.
Schultes also said that he was satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Careen meant for the messages — sent to a young person while he was in a position of trust — to be taken as serious indications of what was to come.
A sentencing date has not yet been set.

Source: National Post