Lethbridge teacher pleads guilty to child pornography charges
LETHBRIDGE – A Lethbridge school teacher has pleaded guilty to several child pornography charges, admitting that some of the images involved students.
Dwayne Schnell entered guilty pleas to distributing, publishing and making child pornography Tuesday morning in Lethbridge Provincial Court. The offence dates against him range from December of 2016 to February of 2017.
Authorities at the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) were first tipped off by Skype in December of 2016, after the internet company noted a user sharing an image, which police determined was child pornography. The youth in the image was estimated to be between 11 and 13 years of age.
Yahoo then reported that seven images – again determined to be child pornography – had been shared by one of their users. The IP address on the account matched that of the Skype user, and the youth was also estimated to be between 11 and 13.