Crown asks for 5-year sentence for Lethbridge teacher who pleaded guilty on child porn charges

A former Lethbridge school teacher who pleaded guilty to possessing and distributing child pornography is expected to be sentenced next week.

Sentencing submissions for Dwayne Schnell were delivered in a Lethbridge court Wednesday.

Crown prosecutor Carolyn Ayre suggestedthe former French immersion teacher should serve five years in prison followed by an order that would limit his access to children for 15 years after his release.

She noted that it was particularly aggravating that some of the images of child porn found in his possession were of students at his school and were obtained without the victims' knowledge.

In response, Schnell's lawyer Greg White askedfor two years in prisonandthree years of probation followed by a probation order of five years.

He suggested that Schnell suffers from an addiction to pornography and that treatment needs to be a major part of his sentence.

Schnell pleaded guilty last October to the charges after authorities were tipped off by websites Skype and Yahoo that a user had been sharing child pornography. That prompted police to search Schnell's home under warrant.

According to court records, police found numerous chats and images of a sexual nature on Schnell's electronic devices, including images ofchildren under the age of 18.

A Dropbox account that belonged to Schnell contained 150 images of students taken without their knowledge which were deemed child pornography. A further 55 images of other youth were also found during the search.

Schnell taught grades 7 through 12 at Ecole La Verendrye. The offences took place between December 2014 and February 2017.

A judge is expected to deliverhis sentence on July 10.

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