CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. - A former high school music teacher who was convicted of three sex offences involving students was sentenced Tuesday to 15 months in jail.
Roger James Jabbour, 66, appeared before Judge John Douglas in provincial court in Charlottetown for sentencing that was delayed twice since his convictions in September.
Douglas previously found Jabbour, who was a teacher at Colonel Gray High School in Charlottetown, guilty on two counts of sexual exploitation and one count of sexual interference.
In sentencing Jabbour, Douglas said he found the offences fell on the high end of the spectrum.
More than a dozen people were in the courtroom to hear the sentence and submissions from the Crown and defence.
During the submissions, defence lawyer Joel Pink argued for a sentence of no more than six months of house arrest, while Crown attorney Valerie Moore sought a jail term of 18 months to two years less a day.
In her submissions, Moore said house arrest wouldn’t be a fit and appropriate sentence given Jabbour’s “high degree of moral blameworthiness”.
Moore said the three victims tried to extricate themselves from Jabbour, and by the time they finished with him they suffered from anxiety and other issues.
“He knew he was causing them distress,” she said.
Jabbour betrayed not only the student-teacher relationship but also the trust parents and the school administration put in him, Moore said.
During her submissions, Moore also said former Colonel Gray High School principal Kevin Whitrow told the police he received three to four complaints per year about Jabbour over a period of about seven years.
The court heard Whitrow told the police he dealt with the complaints by having meetings with the parents and Jabbour.
Whitrow told the police he didn’t document the complaints in any way or put a record of them on Jabbour’s file, Moore said.
In response, Pink said the nature of those complaints wasn’t known and it didn’t mean they were about sexual activity.
In his submissions, Pink said the case caused Jabbour emotional and economic stress and a loss of employment because he was forced to retire.
Jabbour went from a community leader to an “outcast” and has been vilified on social media, Pink said.
During the proceedings, the court heard several people wrote letters of support for Jabbour.
Pink was unsuccessful in arguing a mandatory one-year sentence was unconstitutional and “grossly disproportionate” to what should be imposed.
Throughout the proceedings, Jabbour sat in the front row of the public gallery instead of at the defence table next to his lawyer, which is where offenders usually sit.
Jabbour showed little emotion as he looked down into his lap where he held a leather briefcase, although when Douglas asked if he had anything to say he told the court his lawyer had spoken on his behalf.
While Douglas said it was clear Jabbour had a significant and positive impact on many students and the community in general, he added there were several aggravating factors in the case.
Those included that the victims were younger than 18, the offences involved a breach of trust and Jabbour showed an ongoing pattern of behaviour.
Douglas also said Jabbour didn’t accept responsibility for his actions and the offences had a serious impact on the victims.
The defence asked Douglas to consider that the offence was in the low-end range and minimally invasive, but the judge disagreed, saying there was grooming involved and a breach of trust.
Jabbour will be on probation for 18 months after his release, during which time he is banned from contacting the victims.
He must also provide a DNA sample for the national databank, his name will be on the sex offenders registry for life and he will be subject to a 10-year weapons prohibition.
In a separate case, Jabbour was acquitted in November on two counts of sexual exploitation involving a fourth former student, but the Crown has appealed that decision.
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