Regina teacher accused of sexual offences with high school student found not guilty

A judge has dismissed all charges against Jeffrey Dumba, a former Regina teacher who was accused of five sexual crimes against a high school student.

The decision was delivered Tuesday morning by the Court of King's Bench Justice Neil Robertson.

The five charges are related to Dumba's alleged online and text interactions with a 15-year-old girl between June 23, 2021, and Sept. 2, 2021. She can not be named due a court-ordered publication ban.

The charges include inviting, counselling or inciting a minor to touch themself for a sexual purpose, communicating for the purpose of facilitating the commission of an offence, distributing sexually explicit material to a minor and possessing child pornography.

In his decision, Robertson said that based on the evidence presented, he is satisfied that Dumba took reasonable steps to ascertain the age of the girl before engaging in sexual communication, and that the Crown did not successfully prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Dumba was trying to establish sexual communication or relationships with a minor.

Robertson said that he was satisfied that upon learning the girl's real age, Dumba ceased sexual communications and deleted her images.

"The evidence from both the accused and complainant agree that the accused then immediately told the complainant they must stop their online relationship," Robertson said.

Robertson also said he had reasonable doubt that Dumba continued to exchange sexually explicit images, kept child pornography or invited the girl to his house for sexual purposes.

The judge also expressed concern over the credibility and reliability of the girl's testimony, which made it "unsafe" to convict Dumba on her evidence.

"Given my findings, I dismiss all charges."