Music teacher who pleaded guilty to two criminal harassment charges gives his side of the story outside the courthouse

Members of the media sometimes wait after court appearances to spring questions on offenders or lawyers, but this time the offender waited for me

Bevin van Liempt has been subject of several news stories and much attention in the classical, choral music community because of charges of criminal harassment of two young women, former students of his.

The attention is unwarranted, according the 34-year-old and his mother, who is also involved in that same music community in the Fraser Valley.

On the other hand, the attention is long overdue, according to the nearly two dozen people involved in that community who have messaged me with relief that the situation with van Liempt is finally seeing the light of day.

“Your articles have been providing great coverage, and I have been quite excited when I see a new one published,” a woman said in an email today (March 14, 2025).

“You did a huge service to your community and others for writing about this,” said the second last of dozens of messages I've received from musicians, singers, or relatives of people who have had contact with van Liempt, his mother, or victims in this case.

But is it possible that Bevin van Liempt has simply been misunderstood?

Maybe this whole situation that led to him spending 50 days at Surrey Pretrial Centre and two criminal convictions is a combination of a cultural distaste for so-called May-December romances, a couple of meddling mothers, and van Liempt's own admitted hard-headedness when dealing with questions from Abbotsford Police Department officers.

"I told the police in no uncertain terms that they should go eat shit," he told me.

Van Liempt pleaded guilty to both counts of criminal harassment of two different girls who were 17 at the time of the incidents. He was also charged with breaching the conditions of his release on the first charge. That breach was dropped by Crown counsel with his plea. He is also facing a criminal charge of violating the publication ban on information that could serve to identify either of his victims. That came after he posted a 40-minute selfie video about the cases in which he got specific about the nature of his connection to the Chilliwack victim, thereby, allegedly, identifying her.

Van Liempt had a brief court appearance in Abbotsford on Wednesday (March 13) to schedule a date for his sentencing on the two criminal harassment charges. That date is set for June 3, 2025.

I attended that court hearing along with one of two members of the music community who have attended nearly every day in court. As I walked out of the Abbotsford Law Courts I could see van Liempt sitting on a concrete seat outside, smoking a cigarette, looking at me. His mother Paula DeWit was standing about 20 feet away. As I walked out, he said "Hi Paul." I said hello to him, said goodbye to the man I was with and I turned to walk away and said, "Good luck."

Then van Liempt asked me if I wanted to ask him any questions. I turned and walked back over to him. I said I would like to but I was being cautious because his mother got a lawyer to contact me. I asked DeWit if she wanted to comment in an email on Feb. 10, 2025. I included some questions I had. She did not reply, but the next day I received a letter via email from a lawyer threatening a defamation lawsuit. I know that I have committed no legal defamation, but one treads lightly around people who seem to have unlimited resources and who feel they are being treated unfairly.

Van Liempt insisted that was his mother and not him, and that while he did not like what I had written so far, he holds no ill will. He was keen to tell me his side of the story, a story he feels has been ignored or misunderstood by family members of the victims, police, Crown counsel, as well as the churches and music organizations who cut ties with him.

I shook his hand, looked up at the younger man who must be at least 6'7", and we walked and talked. Our exchange was civil and, I think, honest, and after about 10 minutes I took some notes on my phone. We talked for about 30 minutes total. After about 10 I took a few notes on my phone and then I started recording our conversation for the last 12 minutes and 53 seconds.

Before I started taking notes, I asked him about Emily Janzen. She was a girl he cared about very much from about a decade ago. He said he tried to rescue her from a bad situation at home, with her father. For some period of time he said Emily lived with him at his house* then late with a mutual friend. Bevin said one day they were essentially tricked into a meeting that turned out to be Emily's father and she returned to the family house on Llanberis Way in Popkum. In May 2015, Emily was murdered by her father who also killed Emily’s mother, aunt, then committed suicide and burned the house down. This obviously haunts van Liempt.

[*Correction: The original version of this incorrectly stated that Emily Janzen was living with him at his other's house. Sorry about that, Bevin himself corrected me.]

I won't share the entire transcript of the 2,400-plus words van Liempt and I exchanged. What follows is a heavily edited version to avoid repetition, too many profanities, parts that were confusing, or anything that could be considered defamatory or that might violate the publication ban.

This transcription begins mid-conversation with van Liempt telling me what happened that got him into trouble. I'll refer to the two victims from Abbotsford and Chilliwack as Miss A and Miss C, respectively:

Bevin van Liempt: They form a little team insisting that I must have some nefarious motive if I'm asking her out [on a date]. Her mom brings those texts in.
Miss A apologizes copiously about everything. I told her "don't fight with your family, they're just looking out for you."
And it just goes on and on and on. Everybody's having a fit. I don't know what to do because everybody is upset over something. I don't think it is in anyway inappropriate or wrong or forbidden or illegal. And so now I'm trying to stick up for her as much as possible and give her the space to make her own decisions. 
And she was more than welcome to reject me and I would still care about her the exact same amount. She has not yet found that bravery.
The Miss C case is even more stupid. The Miss C case has eight emails. You wanna go look at them? 
Well, they're fucking so stupid. I don't even know how to put it. 

Me: Let's say everything you've said is perfectly true. It almost verges on conspiracy or at least misunderstanding on a massive scale. Why would so many people from the police to the courts, why would everybody be pursuing this if there's nothing to it, really? 

BVL: So number one, there is a huge stigma with big age gaps. Right now they are, you know, not popular. There is an element of prejudice. 
That's a real thing, right? Like if you look at Leonardo DiCaprio, he's got his young girlfriends, lots of people have opinions, that's totally inappropriate, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. This is a worry that people have in society.
And also, I don't bend, right? Like when people come at me with a lot of force, I usually just take the hit.
Your allowed to come [out for dinner] if you want. That's what they say is harassment. I am staggered. I really am. 

Me: I guess the way they get to come to harassment is being told to stop and you didn't stop? 

BVL: Yeah, so we were around each other a lot. I knew that girl, right? And then suddenly they want me dead. This is weird. Like what the fuck, now you're a completely different person? So similar to with Miss A, that last email from her didn't seem like her. 

Me: You think she was helped or it was written by someone else? 

BVL: I think there is a strong element of other people's moral values being impressed upon young people who don't have a good idea of how the world works. If you could put it in a different time period, like, all sorts of analogies could be drawn. My opinion is that there is nothing wrong with asking either out. They're both adults [now]. If I want to and I did and I don't regret it.
I think they're both lovely. They are both a blessing on my life and I want to see them succeed and have good things and be happy. And the fact that they are in any way sad, fucking kills me at night and I hate it.

Me: So all of this is like a May-December romance in an uptight world?

BVL: I wouldn't be so reductive, but there's an element of that. There's also an element of [people who have made accusations against him] refusing to meet. Like these people that I... I invested in them, and none of them talk to me. 

Me: Your mother is asking people to meet and talk to her, to reconnect and trying to um, you know, sit down and make amends.

BVL: I think she has a heart that longs for reunion with people, that longs for a sense of community. And I think that it takes two people, right? It takes two people to sit down together and actually both come to the table and say, OK, let's build this thing, let's fix this thing.
And I think if they gave that a chance, they would find that she's a really warm and caring person who doesn't want any issues with anybody.
I think insofar as she's been covered with my actions, she has nothing to do with it. Like my mom didn't know I asked out Miss C until well after, and like, I'm 33 dude. I don't ask my mom for permission. 

Me: That's totally an obvious position I think, to just stand by your son. That makes 100% sense to me. 

BVL: I think people should really ask some questions. There's some serious lack of question-asking about what we're calling criminal in Canada today. I'm not about this whole, like, the police don't get to tell me who my friends are. They don't and the fact that they tried is concerning. 

Me: You're not a lawyer, you're defending yourself, but have you have you looked up any case law, similar things like this? 

BVL: I resolved to have the trial go forward on the basis of facts and truth alone. I didn't wanna argue law. I wanted it to be this is what actually happened, and I wanted people to see that, and ask questions about it. 
There is case law, but on a fundamental level, it's just not the police's job to say who I can be friends with. Ultimately, that's my position.
We don't want that, right?
And when I put myself in her shoes, and I thought what it must be like for Miss A, when she had officers show up. I could not imagine a world in which she could stand up to that and fight for whatever it was that we shared, our friendship.
I told the police in no uncertain terms that they should go eat shit. And so now we have the rest of the the APD investigating?
[Name redacted] testified that my motive was to protect them. She really testified that she thought a phone call would have solved the situation. 
I agree, a phone call. All I had to hear was from herself, and I would die by that. And so when I did, that's when it ended. 

Me: It ended. Do you mean it ended when you decided to plead guilty, you had heard from her finally? 

BVL: Yeah, she testified. When I heard her say that she didn't like that email, I saw it was her. That's when I thought, oh, wait a second, it was the first time I ever heard it come from her. 
I got this weird email once that was like, obviously not her. I got the summons to meet beforehand, that was just even more obviously not her.
I wanted to see if she wanted to go to dinner. That's really the long and short. And I don't think it's the job of anybody to be interfering in any relationship.
Liberty is a thing. That's a real thing. Civil liberties exist and they're important. So, if people talk to me, I think they will find that the situation is really not.... there's very little to it. I think that she has been stigmatized by people drawing wild conclusions.

Me: This is a combination of misunderstandings and your personality to not back down to the cops?

BVL:  Yeah, exactly. And it's just it gets bigger and bigger and bigger bigger.
Miss A can do whatever she wants, and whatever she tells me she wants, I'm gonna fight for it. If she wants me punished, I'll punish myself. I care about that girl. I love her to death. 
She's an amazing girl. She does not deserve this attention. She doesn't deserve anything but the nicest stuff. If it means leaving her alone, that's what it is. Whatever she asks for. 

-30-

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