A former high school teacher in Saskatoon is on trial charged with sexual exploitation of a Grade 12 student.
Matthew Tumbach taught science at Tommy Douglas Collegiate in 2011 when he allegedly had sex with a 17-year-old female student. He is now in a judge-alone trial at Court of King’s Bench before Justice Colin Clackson.
Prosecutor Sheryl Fillo opened — and then closed — the Crown’s case Monday, calling two witnesses. They were the complainant, who is now 29, and her best friend from school, who is now 28.
“It felt like love,” the alleged victim testified. “I told my best friend the next day that I’d slept with Mr. Tumbach.”
The timing of the events is going to be key at the trial.
Tumbach surrendered his teaching certificate for 10 years in 2021 after admitting to the sexual relationship. However, he maintained during the investigation by the Saskatchewan Professional Teachers Regulatory Board that he did not have intercourse with the young woman until after she had graduated and was 18 years old.
Court heard Monday that the woman met Tumbach when she was in Grade 10 and he was interning at the high school. Over time, the pair became friends and met for morning tea in his classroom office a couple times a week. They also began communicating on social media.
“We would talk about my family, friendship problems, music,” she said.
“It felt like he wouldn’t judge me on the things I told him.”
The woman said she went to Tumbach’s Broadway-area apartment just before Christmas break in 2011. She was 17, finishing her first semester of Grade 12, and getting ready to move to Manitoba.
She said they watched a movie — Son in Law — in his living room, smoked marijuana, drank beer and then moved into his bedroom to watch Super Troopers.
“We started kissing and made our way under the covers. And we had sex.”
The woman said they never discussed their attraction prior to having sex, “it was just something we felt.” She said she knew because of the “lustful looks” they exchanged at school.
The woman said she reported what happened later, while in therapy for childhood trauma, and realized “this is not OK, this shouldn’t happen to students.”
Under cross-examination by defence lawyer Michael Nolin, the woman admitted that she was struggling with alcohol and drugs at the time. She did move to Manitoba for her last semester of Grade 12, but did not graduate and returned to Saskatoon and to Tommy Douglas Collegiate.
Nolin suggested to the woman and her friend that they had confused when the relationship began because both students had to go through Grade 12 twice.
The trial continues Tuesday.