A former Tri-City substitute teacher who was acquitted on sexual assault charges in 2012 will go to trial next year on new sex-related charges.
Aleksandr Plehanov, a Burnaby resident, was arrested in Surrey in March 2013 and charged with one count of touching a person under the age of 16 for a sexual purpose and one count of sexual assault. His trial, before a judge alone, at B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster will take place Oct. 19 to 30, 2015.
According to Surrey RCMP the alleged victim was the child of a friend of Plehanov's.
The latest charges were approved less than a year after Plehanov was acquitted of charges of sexually assaulting a handful of students throughout School District 43.
The touching reportedly included girls aged seven and eight sitting on Plehanov's lap and him touching their bodies, both over and underneath their clothing. It was alleged to have continued until the parents of one girl reported the incident to police in March 2010.
Plehanov was arrested by Coquitlam RCMP and charged with 10 counts of sexual interference of a person under 16 and sexual assault involving five complainants.
He was also charged with criminal harassment in connection with an alleged incident in June 2010, when he was said to have been spotted in his car outside the home of one of the complainants.
When Plehanov was acquitted in November 2012 after a two-week trial, Judge David St. Pierre said the Crown had not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused intended to touch the girls in a sexual manner.
"It was clear from the evidence that Mr. Plehanov either was completely ignorant of or ignored the parameters and boundaries that were expected of a teacher by the school board and/or the teaching college relating to appropriate contact between a teacher and students," St. Pierre said in B.C. Provincial Court in Port Coquitlam.
During the PoCo trial, the prosecution argued the incidents allegedly occurred after Plehanov was warned several times that some of his contact with the children was inappropriate and that the court could therefore conclude the contact was for a sexual purpose and not a matter of an unskilled teacher not understanding the boundaries.
Judge St. Pierre found the evidence presented in the trial was unreliable and it was impossible to say whether the contact was incidental or could be proven as criminal.
After the acquittal, Plehanov's lawyer, Lisa Jean Helps, said the administration of justice was upheld and that her client was happy with the results.
"He is of course ecstatic, he has maintained his innocence from the beginning," Helps said.
Plehanov's teaching certificate was suspended in 2010 and was cancelled in May 2014; he has also been ruled ineligible to teach for three years. A public hearing would have to be held before his licence could be reinstated, should he apply.
The Ministry of Education, in its reasons for cancelling Plehanov's licence, stated Plehanov "admitted professional misconduct and conduct unbecoming," contrary to education standards.
