Aaron Travis Benneweis stood behind prisoner’s glass on Thursday, wearing a grey jail-issued sweatshirt, as Judge Marilyn Gray imposed the sentence proposed by the Crown in Saskatoon provincial court.
Benneweis, 47, began serving his sentence on Jan. 4 after he asked to be taken into custody between his sentencing hearing and Thursday’s decision.
Defence lawyer Brian Pfefferle sought a jail sentence in the range 45 days (the mandatory minimum for sexual exploitation) and six months, with a 30-month probation period after his release.
Benneweis pleaded guilty in October to sexual assault and sexual exploitation (while in a position of trust and authority as a teacher) against Jennifer Beaudry for seven separate assaults between 2008 and 2012.
Court heard Benneweis began grooming Beaudry — who argued successfully for a publication ban on her identity to be lifted — while he was her 32-year-old gym teacher and track coach at Legacy Christian Academy, a qualified independent Christian school in Saskatoon’s north end.
At the time, in 2008, the school was called Christian Centre Academy, and Beaudry was 13 years old.
Gray condemned Benneweis’s grooming behaviour toward a child he exploited, his characterization of the offence as an infidelity issue due to marital problems rather than devious sexual behaviour, and the school and church’s coverup attempt.
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Trial for former private Saskatoon Christian school administrator rescheduled, again
The trial for one of the former administrators charged with assaulting students at a private Christian school in Saskatoon has been adjourned, again.
Ken Schultz is charged with assault with a weapon for allegedly striking students with a wooden paddle at Christian Centre Academy in the early 2000s. He is also charged with sexual assault.
His judge-alone trial was scheduled to run next week in Saskatoon Court of King’s Bench, but […]
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Scharfstein LLP are representing the claimants
The Statement of Claim was issued on August 8, 2022. The next step will be collecting information, and certification of the claim as a class action on behalf of all minors who attended Legacy Christian Academy, Christian Centre Academy, Saskatoon Christian Centre, and/or Mile Two Church from 1982 to present.