The fate of Jeffrey Dumba, 52, is now in the hands of a judge who must parse through evidence and arguments.
Lying and recklessness were themes competing for space as lawyers argued about whether a former Regina teacher committed sexual crimes against an underage student.
Jeffrey Dumba, 52, stands charged with five offences, all dated between June 23, 2021 and Sept. 2, 2021.
These include an allegation that he did invite, counsel or incite the alleged victim, who was under 16 at the time, to touch herself for a sexual purpose.
Other charges allege he communicated with a minor for the purpose of facilitating the commission of an offence, distributed sexually explicit material to a minor and possessed child pornography.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges at the outset of his trial, which began in June.
In Regina on Monday, lawyers presented their final words on the case to Court of King’s Bench Justice Neil Robertson, in whose hands Dumba’s fate now rests.
The communications central to the charges occurred digitally, through social media and texting. It is not disputed that the teacher engaged in sexual conversation with the complainant and exchanged sexually explicit images with her.
What is at issue is when the teacher became aware the complainant was underage and potentially whether he was reckless about her age from the outset.
She testified that Dumba knew from early on that she was a high school student and continued with sexual interactions after becoming aware of her full identity as a student at the school in which he taught. He testified that she initially told him she was 20 and once he found out otherwise, he ceased all sexual communication and disposed of all explicit images of her.
At trial, an abundance of technical evidence was presented, regarding the digital communications and images at issue. While questions were raised about what precisely that evidence can confirm, lawyers from both sides argued Monday that the judge could look to it in support of their respective positions.
The testimony of the complainant and the accused received significant scrutiny during closing arguments.
“I’d submit just generally, the complainant is not credible nor reliable,” defence lawyer Darren Kraushaar told the judge.
“She’s lying about key facts and details. She can’t be relied on for anything.”
He referenced that Dumba had told an officer he “may have” spent another day doing “horrible things” after he became aware the girl was a student at the school where he taught. While Dumba denied at trial that this was a confession, Klein framed it as such for the judge.
Kraushaar took a different view of what his client told police.
“Even in the words of the statement itself, he’s using words like may have or that might’ve happened or things like that, to say ‘well yeah, like there’s times maybe I don’t remember something,’ for instance,” he said.
The defence lawyer suggested the case is one of credibility, in large part, and that his client should be believed.
Lawyers argued on whether Dumba can rely on the legal defence that he had a mistaken belief about the girl’s age. This would require him to have taken “reasonable steps” to ascertain her age.
“In this context, the sort of Wild West of online interaction, Mr. Dumba ought to have known that there’s a significant possibility that the person that he’s interacting with is not who they say they are,” Klein argued.
“And in that context, simply asking them how old they are, simply looking at a few photographs to satisfy yourself about their identity — that’s not enough.”
The prosecutor submitted that Dumba was at least reckless about the girl’s age, which should lead the judge toward finding him guilty on all counts.
Kraushaar told the judge there was no set list of reasonable steps and no matter what steps his client had taken, the Crown could always say more was required.
The test, he said, is to look at the case through the eyes of an objective observer, consider all of the circumstances and ask ‘was this enough?’”
“I’d submit here, yes it was,” the defence lawyer said.
Robertson plans to give his decision on the matter in late November.
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