More charges have been laid against a retired school teacher who pled guilty last year to sexually exploiting two young people in Coquitlam during incidents that date back more than a decade.
Russell Lance Read, who last taught at Citadel middle school in Port Coquitlam, is now facing one count each of sexual interference of a person under 14, sexual exploitation, touching a young person for a sexual purpose and two counts of sexual assault. He was known to coach rugby, volleyball and choir.
The two charges he pled guilty to in 2013 related to offenses that were carried out between 1998 and 2003 in Coquitlam, Victoria, Ladner and Vancouver.
Details of the offences are limited because of a publication ban to protect the victims. However, criminal justice branch spokesperson Neil MacKenzie told the Tri-City News last year that in one case, Read also pleaded guilty to administering a stupefying or overpowering drug with the intent to commit sexual exploitation.
Last year's guilty plea was not the first time Read had been investigated. In 2009 he was suspended from teaching and given a 10-year ban from re-certifying by the former B.C. College of Teachers (now the B.C. Teacher Regulation Branch).
Records obtained by The Tri-City News at the time show he was also investigated by the college in 2008 for incidents between 2002 and 2004, which he agreed constituted professional misconduct.
They included referring to students as "Grade 12 babes" in an email, passing on information about the Wicca religion to a student at her workplace and making inappropriate jokes or references to students while employed as a middle school teacher. The school isn't named in the disciplinary report.
In earlier incidents between 1979 and 1983, Read was found to have given a young female the drug amyl nitrate while he was a teacher at a First Nations band school.
Even with the new charges, the Coquitlam RCMP believe there could be more victims. Anyone who has allegedly been a victim of Read who has not spoken to police is being asked to call Cpl. Chris Fox for the Coquitlam RCMP Sex Crime Unit at 604-552-4335.
-with files from Diane Strandberg
