Estevan teacher sentenced to 5 years for sexual assaulting students
A teacher from Estevan, Sask. has been sentenced to five years in federal prison after sexually assaulting multiple students.
Troy Ruzicka was sentenced in Estevan provincial court on Tuesday having been found guilty of sexual assault and sexual touching.
According to the agreed statement of facts, the incidents Ruzicka was charged for spanned from 2014 to 2017 when he worked as a mechanics teacher at Estevan Comprehensive School.
On Feb. 8, 2017, a complaint was submitted against Ruzicka regarding inappropriate Facebook messages between him and a female student. The complaint sparked an investigation which included interviews with a number of female students.
While working at the school, Ruzicka was found to have used a fake Facebook account, with a woman's name, to make contact and create relationships with female students. The students said the conversations were of a sexual nature.
He requested and received pornographic images of a student under 16 through that alias.
With one Grade 10 student, he began a sexual relationship that lasted two years. Most of the sexual contact occurred at the school. Ruzicka was found to have also sent explicit photos, messages and videos to the student.
On one occasion, in 2017, he acted violently during sexual activity with the student. She said she did not consent to it and was injured.
Later the student said she wanted to report the relationship earlier but did not know how to approach the situation because he was a teacher.
Ruzicka assaulted a third student three to four times in early 2017. He touched her breasts when she asked him a question about headlights and put his hands down her pants. This continued even though she told him to stop. He sent explicit photos of himself to her, some which appeared to have been taken behind his desk at school. He also requested photos from her and she obliged.
Along with his time in custody, Ruzicka was also given a 10-year firearm prohibition, 20 years on the sex offender registry and a DNA order. He was ordered to avoid contact with individuals under the age of 16 for the next eight years.
