Surprise guilty plea heads off 2nd trial for former director of Saskatoon private Christian school
CBC
The former principal of a private Christian school in Saskatoon has pleaded guilty to five assault charges in provincial court, avoiding a trial that was supposed to start Tuesday afternoon.
The trial would have been the second in as many years for John Olubobokun in connection with his time as director of what was then called the Christian Centre Academy.
Crown and defence lawyers held talks about a potential plea change just before the trial was scheduled to start Tuesday afternoon in Saskatoon provincial court.
When court convened, Olubobokun entered guilty pleas and admitted he assaulted several students with a wooden paddle in 2003.
Sentencing arguments are scheduled for Thursday morning in Saskatoon provincial court.
While reading the facts of the case for the court record, Crown prosecutor Sheryl Fillo referenced evidence heard during a trial for Duff Friesen, the school's former principal, who was convicted on one of four assault charges in November.
There is a court-ordered ban on publishing any evidence from the Friesen trial because he has a second jury trial next year.
Olubobokun's first assault trial started in 2024. In July 2025, a judge found Olubobokun guilty of nine counts of assault with a weapon for hitting students with a wooden paddle when he was the school's director for four years, starting in 2003.
On Nov. 20, he received an 18-month jail sentence to be served in the community.
The school was later renamed Legacy Christian Academy, then Valour Academy. The school is closely associated with Mile Two Church, now called Encounter Church.
Olubobokun is one of three men connected with the school who have been charged with or convicted of assault, after former students alleged that some school leaders in the early 2000s hit them with wooden paddles.
A Saskatoon Court of King's Bench jury convicted former principal Friesen of one count of assault in May but acquitted him of three other counts. His sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 18.
Friesen is charged with seven other counts of assault connected to his time at Christian Centre Academy, and has a second jury trial scheduled for September 2026.
Ken Schultz, a former director and vice-principal at Christian Centre Academy, is charged with assault with a weapon for allegedly striking students with a wooden paddle in the early 2000s. He is also charged with sexual assault.
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