Regina teacher accused of sexual offences tells court he didn't realize he was messaging teen student

WARNING: This story contains distressing details.

Regina high school teacher Jeffrey Dumba told a court Thursday that he stopped sending sexually explicit messages to a girl once he realized she was a 15-year-old student.

Dumba, 52, is on trial at Court of King's Bench in Regina, where he has pleaded not guilty to five charges, including inviting a minor to touch herself sexually, distributing sexually explicit material to a minor and possessing child pornography.

Earlier this week, his trial heard testimony from a girl who alleges that a messaging relationship with Dumba in 2021 eventually led to an exchange of explicit photos and videos.

The identity of the teen, who was 15 at the time of the alleged offences, is subject to a publication ban.

On Thursday afternoon, Dumba took the stand as the defence's first witness and described how he began messaging the teen in the summer of 2021, and how those conversations evolved.

Dumba told the court he did not know the teen in the 2020-21 school year, as he did not teach her. He also noted students were required to wear masks during that school year. He said he may have interacted with her in a colleague's class, but denied any physical contact with her.

The teen earlier testified that Dumba hugged her at the end of the school year, and spoke with her occasionally in the school.

Dumba said that summer, he was "hanging out" in his backyard, "having some drinks and doing some drugs." He said that happened a few times a week. He also said over that summer he was sharing intimate images with five or six women.

He said he did not recall the teen adding him as a contact on the social media platform Snapchat, and said that while he did not know who she was, he added her anyway.

Dumba said he had students try to add him as a contact in the past but did not accept.

He testified that the girl told him she was 20 and a "student," which he said he assumed meant she was in post-secondary school.

"The pictures that I saw, she looked 20," Dumba said.

The initial messages were about "normal, everyday stuff," but eventually turned sexual, he told the court.