Teacher going to trial on child porn charges
A former Red Deer high school teacher and football coach is going to trial on child pornography-related charges.
Rhett Jeffrey Lundgren, 40, is facing two counts of luring a child, and one count each of sexual exploitation, making, printing or publishing child pornography, and selling or distributing child pornography.
RCMP laid the charges in January 2017 after a woman came forward and made a complaint. She was 17 at the time of the alleged offences about eight years earlier. Lundgren was a teacher at Hunting Hills High School in 2007 and 2008.
A preliminary hearing was held in Red Deer provincial court Wednesday morning. Evidence presented at the hearing is covered by a publication ban.
Lundgren’s case will return to court March 5 when a trial date will be set. He previously pleaded not guilty and elected to be tried by a judge alone.
He also is due to go to trial in Saskatoon in June on half a dozen charges, including attempting to access child pornography and arranging to commit a sexual offence against a child.
Lundgren was a high school teacher in Saskatoon when he was arrested and charged in December 2016.