A former special-education teacher charged with possession of child pornography testified in his defence on Tuesday that Russian curling team members used to stay at his condo for weeks at a time while he was away on holiday.
Jerry Waselenkoff also denied he stashed computer discs containing child-pornography files and said he did not admit guilt to the neighbour who found them in the area between the two condos.
The 66-year-old retired teacher is charged with a single count of possession of child pornography in a trial that resumed this week in B.C. Supreme Court in Kamloops.
An RCMP investigator testified earlier that she viewed images from the discs of unclothed girls estimated to range in age from eight to 15 years old, with focus on vaginal areas.
Waselenkoff’s neighbour, Franz van der Woning, earlier testified he and his son were fishing electrical wire through the ceiling of his son’s condo unit to install a fireplace when they came upon wallets full of computer discs. The put one in a computer to look at it, became concerned and called Mounties.
Van der Woning was in his home office when he heard rustling in the ceiling where the discs had been found.
Shortly after, he testified, Waselenkoff said he wanted to talk with him. Van der Woning said Waselenkoff was concerned with the find, his reputation and had suicidal thoughts, threatening to take sleeping pills.
But, in his testimony for the defence, Waselenkoff said he only rooted around beneath the floor register after Van der Woning came to him with the report discs had been found.
“I was puzzled why he told me,” Waselenkoff told his lawyer, Glen Orris.
He said Van der Woning seemed to be pressing him for an admission of guilt, saying “‘we all have skeletons in our closet.'”
“I was completely caught off guard . . . I just would’t do that. I respect kids too much. I spent my whole life helping them.”
As for the sleeping-pill reference, Waselenkoff said he told his neighbour he was under stress from caring for two close relatives, including his mother, sick with cancer.
He was worried about his reputation and any association with the discs and told Van der Woning “‘just keep your mouth shut.'”
Waselenkoff said he wasn’t an athlete, but had a gift for coaching. That included a decade-long relationship with the Russian curling federation, teaching Russian curlers visiting the Interior as well as in their own country. He said it started with strategy and eventually included technique.
Many of those curlers, Waselenkoff said, went on to win world championships, adding those curlers would stay at his home on McGill Road for weeks at a time while he was in Asia on holiday,
During cross-examination, the retired teacher claimed 100 per cent success in helping children with dyslexia with a program he developed. He also boasted of winning three elementary school basketball championships in a row while at Beattie elementary.
But, he added, his teaching methods and focus on research made him a “pariah” among special-education colleagues who rejected his methods.
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