UPDATE: Fraser Valley music teacher forced by judge to be 'extracted' from jail to attend criminal harassment trial suddenly pleads guilty
Bevin van Liempt refused to come to court, was ordered to be brought in where he ended the proceedings, was released on bail, hours later threatened legal action on social media
UPDATED – Feb. 27, 12:30 p.m.
Less than eight hours after pleading guilty to two counts of criminal harassment of two different teenage girls in different cities then being released on bail pending a sentencing hearing, Fraser Valley music teacher Bevin van Liempt was back on social media decrying the public "invective" about him, inviting people to hear his "side of the story," and threatening civil litigation.
As I began the original version of this article about the case on Wednesday, it is hard to know whether it was narcissism or sociopathy or something else, but it takes a remarkable sense of confidence for a man who preyed on teenage girls, who was twice charged with criminal harassment, and who decided to self-represent, to then thumb his nose at the proceedings.
That's how Wednesday (Feb. 26, 2025) started when van Liempt refused to be transported from the Surrey Pretrial Centre where he has been incarcerated since Jan. 6, remanded since his bail was revoked by a Chilliwack judge on Jan. 14.
The 34-year-old van Liempt, was mid-trial in Abbotsford for the criminal harassment of a 17-year-old music student he bombarded with thousands of unwanted messages and comments, among other things. While that trial was adjourned in between November 2024 and this month, he did something similar to another teenage girl in Chilliwack and was charged with criminal harassment again.
A B.C. Sheriff Service deputy informed Crown counsel Jim Barbour about the refusal to be transported on Wednesday, which led to a discussion between he and Chris Terepocki, a lawyer assigned by the court to assist the self-represented van Liempt, about how to proceed.
The next scheduled step of the trial was cross-examination of the alleged victim regarding some text messages from the victim's phone accessed since the last hearing, a cross to be conducted by Terepocki. Without him present, it was considered that, at the very least, Terepocki needed get guidance from van Liempt over the phone.
The choices left to the court then were:
1. allow the proceedings to continue with van Liempt attending via video link;
2. order an extraction (physically force him to attend); or
3. under section 803(2)(a) of the criminal code there is a provision to allow for the trial to continue ex parte, i.e. without him present.
Barber suggested they could continue ex parte, and the video option was considered.
However, looking slightly peeved about the insouciance and disregard for wasting the criminal justice system's time and with a vulnerable young victim, Judge Sandhu decided neither of those options were good enough. He said he had practical concerns about van Liempt attending remotely as that would tie up a video room in Surrey all day, which could unnecessarily cause delays to other inmates facing bail hearings.
And the whole waste of time was no one's fault but van Liempt's.
"This is a choice that he made," Judge Sandhu said after more than an hour of discussion on how to proceed.
"This accused does not determine the process for this trial. The court does."
He then ordered the "extraction," stating that if it took until after the lunch break, which ended at 2 p.m. "so be it."
With that, the court adjourned, the B.C. Sheriff Serviced worked to get van Liempt to court, which happened in the afternoon. Somewhat surprisingly to those in attendance, van Liempt then pleaded guilty to both the Abbotsford charge, with the victim waiting in the hallway to be cross-examined, and to the Chilliwack count of criminal harassment, a trial for which was scheduled to being on March 12.
Van Liempt was then released by Judge Sandhu on the same conditions he was released on in November, $750 bail, ordered to live with his mother Paula DeWit in Chilliwack with no alcohol outside of the home.
It was under these conditions that he breached in January leading to Chilliwack charge. At that hearing on Jan. 14, Chilliwack Crown counsel Amy Carter read several of the disturbing messages van Liempt sent to this young girl who rebuffed his every missive, even referring to him as a “repulsive pathetic freak.”
Carter argued that he showed zero insight into the damaging nature of his behaviour, doubling down with one girl while he was mid-trial for criminal harassment of another girl. Van Liempt breached in an "egregious fashion," according to Judge Kristin Mundstock at the pplication to revoke his bail in Chillliwack.
"There is a substantial likelihood if released that he will commit an offence," Judge Mundstock said at that time.
In detaining van Liempt in January, Judge Mundstock pointed out that he refused to take "no" for an answer from teenage girls to whom he was sending thousands of unsolicited emails. He refused to take direction from the family of the girls, from his employer, from police or from the courts. At that time, part of the problem was also that if released he was going to be living with his mother, Paula DeWit, someone who has frequently defended his behaviour as not inappropriate, including to an alleged victim's mother. It was also in his mother's home where his self-admitted consumption of 20 ounces of hard alcohol a day takes place.
Both the Abbotsford and Chilliwack victims expressed fears to police that van Liempt would escalate from the relentless harassment to some form of violence, fear that was ruining their lives.
His mother has sent numerous emails to acquaintances of people connected to her son's victims probing for information, in addition to pleading from her Chilliwack Symphony Orchestra email address for help her. When asked questions via email about the case, not only did DeWit not respond, she retained a lawyer to issue a legal threat of defamation, despite the fact that everything published is true and accurate. The letter suggested that even attempting to contact her again would be considered harassment, so no follow-up emails were sent.
In proffering the same bail conditions as he did in the fall of 2024 before the Chilliwack criminal harassment, Crown counsel Jim Barbour in Abbotsford on Feb. 26, made no mention of the bail revocation or its reasons in Chilliwack on Jan. 14. As part of those same bail conditions he was not ordered to abstain from alcohol nor was he ordered to stay way from using electronic devices or accessing the internet.
As predicted by some members of the music community who have been watching closely and have expressed both their frustration with the behaviours well-known in that music community, and their fears of speaking out lest they be subject to threats of lawsuits, van Liempt was back posting about the case online that evening of the day he was released from custody.
"I'm back!" began a post on his Facebook page from 9:49 p.m. "There is currently an absolute boatload of invective floating around. I am happy to meet with anyone and everyone who wants to ask questions and hear my side of the story. Many people want to ask, and haven't. Please ask.
"I pled for one reason only: I finally heard, in person, from the one person I needed to, in a way that I could be certain it was her, to justify that plea in my conscience."
The latter statement presumably is a reference to the Abbotsford victim. During the Chilliwack hearing to revoke his bail, van Liempt argued that her emails telling him to stop harassing her were not really from her, or were not what she really thought. All along he has insisted the girls do indeed like him and when the say "stop" or "no," they don't mean it.
"I wanted a 15-second voice clip to ensure she wasn't forced into it," he told the court in January. "I am decidedly on her side and awaiting her pleasure."
It's hard to know what it was he heard in court on Feb. 26 that made him conclude in "certain it was her" so much so to make a guilty plea given that the victim was extensively questioned by Crown counsel in previous court appearances where she testified about the criminal harassment. However, the case was adjourned on Feb. 4 after van Liempt said he wanted disclosure of more than 13,000 digital files from the girl’s phone for his defence. In what the judge was concerned was a "fishing expedition," van Liempt clearly wanted to find evidence that she in fact did like him and her pleadings for him to stop the harassment were coerced. With his court-appointed lawyer Terepocki speaking with him on Feb. 26, it's possible that after Barbour and Terepocki went through the messages to edit them down to ones of possible relevance, no such evidence was found, which led him to consider pleading guilty.
In the Feb. 26 Facebook post, van Liempt's page also says that even though he pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal harassment – convictions that he is yet to be sentenced for – he anticipates "launching extensive further legal action in civil court."
"My belief in my fellowman [sic] is badly shaken but still intact. And the truth, in the end, always wins out."
He also briefly addressed his experiences at the Surrey Pretrial Centre and the "surreal" feeling being kept on a "maximum security range."
"I had fun in the pretrial facility and met lots of cool people, and my love goes out to the inmates, who are awaiting their own justice."
When he was charged with the criminal harassment charge in Chilliwack, he was also charged with a breach of his release while he was mid-trial in the Abbotsford case. Judge Sandhu issued a stay of proceedings for the breach.
The case is now put over to what was supposed to be the start of the Chilliwack trial on March 12, and instead now will be to confirm a sentencing date on both cases. A pre-sentencing report was ordered in advance of sentencing, which includes a forensic psychiatric assessment.
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