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Formerly Waterloo, Ont. school principal pleads guilty to soliciting and sending sexually explicit material
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Formerly Waterloo, Ont. school principal pleads guilty to soliciting and sending sexually explicit material


Warning: This story contains disturbing and explicit sexual details.

Former elementary school principal in Waterloo, Ont. pleaded guilty to charges including luring and transmitting sexually explicit material to a person believed to be under 16.

Phillip Sallewsky, 57, is due to be sentenced in a London courtroom in January.

An agreed statement of facts described sexually explicit online conversations between a username and email address that was linked to Sallewsky’s phone, with two separate accounts that identified themselves as a 13-year-old girl years and a 14-year-old girl.

The “teenagers” were actually two undercover cops.

The user, who went by the name ‘Sam’ or ‘Chuck’, told the ‘teens’ that he was a teacher. He also said he was 50 years old.

The user also sent a photo of his face to one of the “teenagers”. Police soon matched it to a driver’s license photo belonging to Phillip Sallewsky of Kitchener, Ont.

When officers did an online search of his name, they found Sallewsky listed as the principal of Northlake Woods Public School in Waterloo.

The agreed statement of facts also detailed the sexualized conversations between the user and the two teenage individuals created by the police, starting on February 14, 2023 and continuing in the following weeks. During this time, the user sent nude photos, including one of his penis that appeared to have been taken at work.

The agreed statement also said Sallewsky carved two wooden penises, carved with the names of the girls he thought he was talking to. Images of wooden penises were also sent to both ‘teenagers’.

In early March, the user told one of the “teenagers” that he would be at a hockey arena in London, Ont. Police went there and took photos of Sallewsky, including him using the phone. The user sent a photo of his face to both teenagers, and the clothing he was wearing matched what Sallewsky was wearing that day.

Sallewsky also made arrangements to meet both “girls” separately. He was arrested at the site of one of these planned meetings, the Burlington Go station, on March 30, 2023.

The court heard that subsequent search warrants were executed at Sallewsky’s home and the school where he worked. One of the wooden penises was found in his house. During the search warrant at the school, police were able to confirm that Sallewsky took and sent a photo of his penis from his office.

A subsequent search of Sallewsky’s iPhone revealed that the account and email address used by “Sam” and “Chuck” were associated with the device. Northlake Woods Public School was also used multiple times as the login IP address for the email account.

Sallewsky pleaded guilty at London Crown Court to two counts of transmitting sexually explicit material to someone who was or is believed to be under 16 with the intent to facilitate the commission of an offence, two counts of enticing to a person, believed to be under the age of 16, for the purpose of facilitating an offence, and one count each of making written child pornography and transmitting child pornography written.

Crown prosecutor Andrea Mason asked for a six-year sentence, while Sallewsky’s lawyer, Ron Ellis, asked for two years in prison.

The judge is expected to sentence Sallewsky on January 14, 2025.

A spokesperson for the Waterloo District School Board confirmed to CTV News that Sallewsky is no longer employed there. The school board did not provide a date on which his employment was terminated.