Trial of former Regina teacher for sex crimes continues

Article content

As the trial of a former Regina teacher accused of sex crimes against minors continued Tuesday, the mother of the alleged victim took the witness stand.

She testified that her daughter called her a bad mother because she did not believe she was a victim.

Jeffrey Dumba, 52, is accused of five criminal offenses. All charges date between June 23, 2021, and September 2, 2021.

Article content

The charges include the allegation that he requested, advised or incited the alleged victim, who was under 16 at the time, to touch herself for sexual purposes.

Additional charges include communicating with a minor for the purpose of committing a crime, distributing sexually explicit material to a minor, and possessing child pornography.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges and the trial began on Monday in the Court of King’s Bench in Regina.

There is a court order prohibiting the publication of information that could lead to the identification of the alleged victim.

Tuesday’s trial began with continued testimony from a witness who spoke about data extracted from several electronic devices seized by police.

Prosecutor Loren Klein later showed the alleged victim’s mother a photo that he had partially blurred. She confirmed to the prosecution that it showed one of the blankets she had bought for her children.

A police witness testified that in addition to sexually explicit images, a photo of the family blanket was found on Dumba’s phone.

The mother told Klein that she had not met Dumba before police intervened in 2021 and was unaware that her daughter was corresponding with him on social media.

Article content

Article content

However, she later joined the defense attorney Darren Kraushaar said her daughter had told her before the incident about the teacher, whom students thought was “hot.” The girl looked up a social media account of Dumba and showed it to her mother, the witness said. She agreed with the defense attorney that she feared her daughter had a crush on the teacher.

Klein later wondered why the witness had asked her daughter during the girl’s police interview if she knew who the teacher was when the girl “added” him on social media.

The mother said she was in shock.

“When I asked her that, I was trying to be her mother,” she added, noting that she hoped her daughter would open up and “get the help she needs.”

The witness agreed Kraushaar said she contacted police before the trial and told an officer that she feared her daughter might lie about some things.

“I felt really guilty about everything that happened,” she said.

Article content

The mother admitted that she was hesitant to testify because of her daughter’s possible reaction.

“Because I even questioned her, she tried to remove the children from my house. She said I was hitting her,” she told the defense attorney.

Klein later questioned the witness about her current relationship with her daughter. She described it as “non-existent” and confirmed that the relationship was already bad when she called the police before the trial.

However, the witness denied that she was “angry” and instead said she was “devastated”.

She emotionally told Klein that she loved her child and did not want to testify.

“Did I want to admit that my child wanted this? No. But did I know that she had inappropriate relationships with adults in the past? Yes, I knew that.”

The trial is scheduled to continue on Wednesday.

[email protected]

The Regina Leader-Post has a Afternoon headlines Newsletter delivered daily to your inbox to keep you up to date with the most important news of the day. Click here to subscribe.

With some online platforms blocking access to the journalism you depend on, our website is your go-to source for breaking news. So be sure to bookmark leaderpost.com and subscribe to our newsletters so we can keep you informed. Click here to subscribe.

Article content