A former Argyle music teacher was sentenced Friday to 14 months in prison for sexually exploiting a teenaged student.
Chad Smith, 41, violated the sacred trust accorded to teachers to satisfy his own “sexual and emotional needs,” said North Vancouver provincial court Judge Joanne Challenger in handing down the sentence.
Beginning in 2012, the popular North Vancouver music teacher began a two-year relationship with a 16-year-old female student. Smith sent the victim online messages in which he discussed their “psychic soul connection” and referred to the legal age of sexual consent.
Over approximately two years Smith had sex with his victim at her home and in his car, where she faced a risk of pregnancy, Challenger noted. There were also encounters in Smith’s office at school, which was equipped with a lighting system that informed students and staff not to enter at certain times. It was the student’s first sexual relationship, the judge added.
The victim, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, initially opted not to press criminal charges against her former teacher after extricating herself from the relationship.
However, undeterred by requests to “Just leave me alone,” Smith sent her a gift, numerous emails, and dropped by the victim’s workplace.
“Why should I lose my job because I loved you with every inch of my heart?” Smith asked in an email, later read out in court, as he requested mercy.
The victim eventually revealed the crime to her psychologist, leading to a police sting using the victim’s email account. On Aug. 27, 2015, RCMP officers tracked down Smith in a grocery store, arresting him and wresting his cellphone away. Upon his arrest, police recorded Smith saying, “I am what I am.” (more...)
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