EX-TEACHER JAILED
Three years for sex crimes
Warning: graphic content
Rhett Lundgren was a teacher at Walter Murray Collegiate in Saskatoon when he discussed, online, a plan to become sexually aroused by watching a young, naked girl in a pool change room.
On Dec. 8, 2016, Lundgren arranged to meet an undercover officer, who he thought was a pedophile with an eight-year-old niece, at the pool, where he said he could touch his genitals while sitting beside the girl in a hot tub.
However, Lundgren did not go to the pool that day.
He told the officer he had a meeting and suggested they meet another day.
Those facts were presented on Monday in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench, where Lundgren was sentenced to three years in prison for committing online child sex crimes while he was a high school teacher in Red Deer and Saskatoon.
Justice Ronald Mills accepted a joint submission from the Crown and defence, saying the sentence would not put the administration of justice into “disrepute.”
Lundgren pleaded guilty in November to arranging to commit a sexual offence against a child, attempting to access child pornography during the online chats and possessing nine images and nine videos of child porn found by police when they searched his computer.
They also found “bum shots” of teen girls taken at a high school track meet, court heard.
On Monday, he also pleaded guilty to an additional charge of child luring in connection to a sexual relationship he had with a 17-year-old student at a Red Deer high school where he taught in 2009, when he was 32 years old. The charge wasn’t laid until 2017; it was the result of a tip made to Crime Stoppers after Lundgren was charged with the Saskatoon offences, according to the agreed statement of facts.
Lundgren’s lawyer, Darren Kraushaar, told court Lundgren knows the relationship was wrong, but had “genuine feelings” for the teen.
The girl wrote a victim impact statement describing the lingering trauma of having to go to court and face the reality of what happened.
Crown prosecutor Lana Morelli noted that while Lundgren has no prior criminal record and pleaded guilty, he was a teacher in a position of trust and authority at the time of both offences.
Kraushaar told court Lundgren, who is now 41, wasn’t seeking out child porn when he started chatting with the undercover officer, but was a lonely, single father looking for someone to engage in mutual masturbation.
According to the agreed facts, Lundgren showed an interest in discussing child porn after the undercover officer stated he was sexually attracted to girls between eight and 10 years old, but had no intention of meeting the officer.
Lundgren’s daughter was around the same age at the time, court heard.
Kraushaar said his client is a former Saskatoon Hilltop and was a well-liked teacher, coach and mentor who lost everything, including his job, life savings and custody of his daughter.
“The fact that he had all of these benefits and chose to have them disappear is clearly unfortunate to him, but garners no sympathy from this court,” Mills said.
“Mr. Lundgren is intelligent enough to know better.”
Before he was taken away in handcuffs, Lundgren, who had been out on bail since 2017, thanked his supporters and apologized to the people he hurt.
The three-year sentence reflects a 20-month term for child luring and a 16-month consecutive term for arranging to commit a sexual offence against a child, with a 12-month concurrent sentence for possessing child porn and six months concurrent for attempting to access child porn.