Child porn case against Lethbridge teacher adjourned to April
LETHBRIDGE – The case against a 37-year old Lethbridge school teacher facing child pornography charges, has been adjourned for nearly a month.
An agent for Dwayne Schnell’s lawyer appeared in Lethbridge Provincial Court Friday (Mar. 24), explaining that the defence needs to submit a written request for full disclosure, and that there will be a great deal of evidence for them to review once it comes in.
Schnell — who teaches grades seven to twelve at Lethbridge’s French language school, Ecole La Verendrye — was arrested Feb. 22 and charged with possessing, accessing and distributing child pornography.
The charges stem from an investigation that started in January, after the Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) team — a division of the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team (ALERT) — received a referral from the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in late December. Concerns centred around a social media user who was allegedly uploading sexually explicit images of children.