Former Saskatoon Christian school principal found guilty of assaulting 3 students with paddle

A Saskatoon jury has found Duff Arthur Friesen, 68, guilty of assaulting three former students at a private Christian school with a wooden paddle. 

The former principal of Christian Centre Academy was found guilty on three counts of assault with a weapon Friday.

The counts involved former students Andrew Watson, Robynne Randall and Jillian Kudryk. He was acquitted on two counts, involving Coy Nolin and Sean Kotelmach.

The 12 jurors were polled individually on each count, and one juror answered not guilty on all five, contradicting the verdict the foreperson had delivered. Court of King’s Bench Justice Daryl Labach sent the jury back to continue deliberating, and they returned about an hour later with the same verdict.

The school was named Christian Centre Academy at the time of the alleged offences. It was later renamed Legacy Christian Academy and is now Valour Academy. It’s closely associated with what was Mile Two Church and is now Encounter Church.

Labach spent Friday morning instructing the jurors on the law and reviewing the evidence before sending them to deliberate.

He went over the witness testimony and evidence presented in the trial, which had been running for the last two weeks.

He said that according to witness testimony, the church and the school operated out of one interconnected building on Pinehouse Drive in Saskatoon. Students who attended the church attended the academy. The school had strict rules, including limits on radio, music, books and movies.

Discipline came in levels, Labach said: demerits, cautions and “scriptural discipline,” or paddling. Five demerits in the same category brought a caution, as did something more serious, such as not having a weekly scripture memorized.

“Scriptural discipline” was the highest level, carried out by the director or the principal. A student could be paddled for accumulating demerits or cautions, or for something serious.

Labach said the paddles were similar to small cricket bats and got bigger for students in higher levels. A student who refused to be paddled could be expelled.

The judge said that for a guilty decision, the Crown must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the offence happened in Saskatoon within the dates on that count, that Friesen intentionally applied force to that student, that the student did not consent, that Friesen knew the student did not consent and that a weapon was involved.

One of the complainants — Kotelmach, now 35 — testified Friesen paddled him three times, when he was around the ages of 13 to 15.

Labach detailed how Kotelmach said he began wearing nine pairs of underwear to soften the blows. Kotelmach testified he was taken to a nursery on the church side of the building, where the paddles were kept, and that Friesen was waiting.

The judge said Kotelmach testified he was lectured about being a bad child, told he would get three swats and told to bend over a chair with his hands on the seat. He described Friesen’s swing as a two-handed baseball swing.

After that, Labach said, Kotelmach testified he sat on his hands crying because it hurt so much, hyperventilating and unable to hear what was being said to him. He called it physically painful and soul-crushing, and that he had red marks for three days.

Other trials

Friesen was previously accused of four counts of assault with a weapon in a separate trial last year. The jury acquitted him on three counts and convicted him on one, relating to his time at the school in the 2003-04 school year. He was sentenced to six months served in the community under conditions.

Friesen is one of four men connected to the school who have been criminally charged after a group of former students came forward.

Former director John Olubobokun was convicted of nine counts of assault after one trial and pleaded guilty to five other charges before his second trial began. He received an 18-month community-based sentence after the first trial, and a five-month consecutive community sentence after the guilty pleas.

In sentencing Olubobokun, Judge Lisa Watson said using a paddle on children is demeaning and harmful.

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 trial is still pending.

Aaron Benneweis, a former coach and athletic director, pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting and exploiting a teenage student and athlete at the private Christian school. 

The class-action lawsuit 

Former students have also filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against Mile Two Church and a long list of former employees and representatives, including Friesen, Olubobokun, Schultz and Benneweis. The claim seeks damages in excess of $25 million.

The class-action lawsuit was dismissed last year, after a judge ruled there was abuse of process because the rest of the defendants weren’t immediately notified when settlements were reached with three others.

But former students appealed the dismissal, and the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal issued a decision in their favour last month.