PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – A former northern Saskatchewan teacher found guilty of sexually exploiting a student is appealing her conviction.
Bonnie McLachlan’s notice of appeal alleges the trial judge made errors.
McLachlan, who is 52, was convicted in Prince Albert in April and was given an 18-month conditional sentence and one year of probation.
A 12-person jury found that she had a sexual relationship with a student at Queen Mary Community School where she worked in the early 1990s.
The name of the victim is protected by a publication ban.
The appeal claims the judge erred in allowing certain evidence to be heard.
It also claims Justice Martel Popescul erred in his charge to the jury with regard to the “permissible use” of the evidence.
Popescul instructed jurors not to use the evidence from Alberta to infer that McLachlan was a person of bad character. But he did tell them to use the Alberta evidence to corroborate testimony given by the victim and other witnesses about encounters that occurred in Saskatchewan.
One of the victim’s friends testified that he saw McLachlan sitting on the then-15-year-old boy’s lap and kissing him in a hot tub at a hotel in Banff, Alta. That testimony was admitted to support the victim’s claims that a sexual relationship took place in Saskatchewan.
The victim had testified that McLachlan initiated a sexual relationship and that the two had sex in her car, at her house and on a band trip to Banff.
The appeal filing also claims Popescul erred when he failed to ensure the jury reheard the complainant’s testimony when the jury asked to rehear the audio recording during deliberations. Audio recordings from two other witnesses were replayed.
The jurors, during their deliberations, also delivered the trial judge a note stating they were seriously divided. The appeal filing claims that Popescul erred in law by “failing to take any or appropriate measures in response.”
This is not the first appeal to be filed in regard to the outcome of McLachlan’s trial. The office of the Attorney General of Saskatchewan has filed a challenge of McLachlan’s sentence, calling it “demonstrably unfit.”
The Crown had requested a jail sentence for McLachlan, who is serving her sentence in the community.
It was her second trial on the charge. She was acquitted in 2011, but the Crown appealed.
Dates for McLachlan’s appeal hearing have not yet been determined.
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