Aaron Benneweis, a former athletic director of Legacy Christian Academy, was sentence to 2 years less a day for sexual exploitation and sexual assault of a minor.
Following his sentence, he will be on 3 years of probation. He is also being directed to have counselling pertaining to the crimes committed.
He worked as athletic director at Christian Centre Academy (now called Legacy Christian Academy) in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Canada from 2008 to 2012, despite not being a certified teacher.
It was noted by the judge how students were not provided any sex education and were expected to always obey their elders.
His wife’s letter of support seemed to shoulder the blame for his indiscretion, citing her postpartum depression as a major contributing factor.
The judge noted that he has only had marital counselling up to this point, and the judge suggested he viewed his crimes as akin to cheating with another adult rather than a crime against a child.
As for the $10,000 his lawyer asked the judge to make a mandatory part of his sentence, the judge noted that since this was such a tight knit community, he could have anonymously donated that money at any time, and yet only offered to do so now. She questioned wether he was genuinely sorry for what he did, or rather if he was simply sorry for getting caught.
The judge spent a great deal of time highlighting how the environment of the church and school were contributing factors for the harm caused to Jen.
The judge discussed Pastor Keith Johnson’s role in this, saying it would be “gracious” for her to not talk to police, but asked her to lie about her age if she did.
She also talked about the church’s practices of isolation and shunning and how those were contributing factors to the harm caused to Jen. This allowed the offender to be able to simply leave the community, but Jen, however, could not.
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