Kelowna Law Courts

(KATHY MICHAELS / iNFOnews.ca)

The former West Kelowna teacher who pleaded guilty to sexually exploiting a student won’t be sentenced until the new year.

The sentencing hearing for Bradley Furman was scheduled for two days and it wasn’t enough. Crown counsel David Grabavac, who proposed a sentence of 71 months less time served for Furman, made submissions for the bulk of the allotted court time. There was also a lengthy interview of psychologist Dr. Matthew Burnett, who wrote the pre-sentence report on Furman.

Furman’s defence lawyer had no opportunity to present her sentencing submission, however, she indicated it would be for much less time.

Thus far the court has heard the relationship began when, Furman, then 28, was the teacher at the school of the then-17-year-old girl.

They started speaking during spring break in the 2017-2018 school year about, among other things, Dungeons and Dragons and Furman’s marital issues. Furman said he thought the young woman was beautiful and how she was “his favourite student,” Grabavac told the court.

Texts of a more sexual nature emerged as the conversations continued and Furman eventually asked the girl for a nude photo. The exact nature of the messages have been sealed for the duration of the hearing, at Crown’s requests.

Then Furman and the girl embarked on a physical relationship that was uncovered May 1, 2018 after Furman called the girl out of two classes with other teachers, which caused his peers to bring the matter to the school administration.

Mount Boucherie Secondary School’s principal and vice-principal watched video of Furman pulling the student from class and noted that they were “too close.” They then called Furman and the girl in for a conversation to talk about their relationship and learned that they had been sexually involved.

From there, Furman was charged and released on conditions which he broke four times. The court heard he and the girl kept their relationship going regardless of what happened in court.

The psychologist indicated the relationship was forged because of some immaturity on Furman's part.

“(Furman showed) mild social immaturity. There was a juvenile quality to his interactional style,” Dr. Burnett said, upon being questioned about reports he wrote about Furman in June and then November.

“Furman presented as somewhat less socially mature than a typical adult of his age…. There was a sort of naivety about him at times and also a sort of peevishness around the sanctions he was under. There was not really a mature understanding, in my opinion, on the link (between) his behaviours and the current circumstances.”

Furman was originally charged with sexual assault, two counts of sexual exploitation of a young person, luring a child and attempting to pervert justice, stemming from incidents last summer. As part of a plea deal, the Crown agreed to drop several of the charges in exchange for his guilty pleas on the sexual exploitation, attempting to pervert justice and three breach charges.

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