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Phillip Sallewsky, 57, believed he was sending online messages to girls who were 13 or 14. They were actually undercover police officers.

Sallewsky, the principal of Northlake Woods Public School at the time, sent photos of his genitals to the “girls” and arranged to meet them.

Police arrested the Kitchener man in March 2023, just moments before he was about to meet one of the child personas.

“This was an experienced educator who knew the particular vulnerabilities of children and as part of his grooming strategy, used his experience as a teacher, vice-principal and principal for his own deviant sexual purposes,” Justice Brian White said.

“This makes Mr. Sallewsky a child predator unique among child predators, given his professional experience as an educator.”

Sallewsky was charged after an investigation by police in London, Toronto and Waterloo Region. The case was heard in London.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of luring, two counts of making sexually explicit material available to a person believed to be under 16, one count of making written child pornography and one count of transmitting written child pornography.

Sallewsky was sentenced only on the child luring charges. The other charges were stayed because they are tied to the luring counts.

The judge put him on the sex offender registry for 20 years.

Sallewsky can’t work or volunteer in a position of trust or authority of people under 16. He also can’t go to places where children frequent unless with a person older than 21 who is aware of his convictions.

Sallewsky exchanged with the child personas, Crown prosecutor Andrea Mason previously told court.

“This chatting was prolonged and extensive,” she said. “This was not a one-off or a misstep by Mr. Sallewsky. He spoke with both undercover officers almost daily for several months.”

Early on, he groomed the child personas, Mason said.

“I find that nothing in Mr. Sallewsky’s conduct was impulsive, spontaneous or opportunistic,” the judge said. “Nothing was spur of the moment. Nothing was in the nature of momentary error or slip. Nothing was in the nature of isolated error of judgment.”

Sallewsky’s moral blameworthiness is high, the judge said.

“The gravity of child luring cannot be overstated,” he said. “We trust that our children are safe under our care and within our home.

“However, the internet and other electronic communication methods have allowed predators to quietly infiltrate our children’s spaces and exploit them for the most nefarious purposes.”

After Sallewsky told one undercover officer he enjoys woodworking, the persona asks him what was “the coolest thing” he ever made.

At first he says he can’t tell her because “it’s a little out there.”

The officer asks him to send a photo of it. Sallewsky tells her she must promise to keep it a secret.

“He then says he carved a dildo modelled after himself,” Mason said. “That conversation from there, in my submission, progresses to what is clearly grooming on the part of Mr. Sallewsky.”

The Crown read aloud dozens of sexually explicit messages Sallewsky sent, including ones where he said he wanted to have sex with the “girl.”

He had told her he is married but suggested they could have a “non-traditional boyfriend/girlfriend relationship,” Mason said.

He sent both child personas photos of his genitals and arranged to meet them.

With one undercover officer, Sallewsky talked about taking a GO train to a certain station and finding “a secret spot” to meet.

At one point the child persona tells him she is “coming into the station.”

“And that is where Mr. Sallewsky is in fact arrested,” Mason said. “So this is not sort of a fantasy. Mr. Sallewsky made actual efforts, plans and acted on his efforts to meet with this undercover officer.

“This was a concerted effort on the part of Mr. Sallewsky to actually go and physically meet up with and sexually abuse a child.”

He had also set a date and time to meet the other child persona but was arrested before that could happen, Mason said.

Sallewsky messaged one of the child personas from at least three places — his house, an arena where he was watching a hockey game and from the school where he was the principal.

From his office, he messaged a child persona that he was touching himself sexually, Mason said.

“He’s not only engaging in this conduct at home, but he’s doing it at the place of his employment, which is a school that involves children,” Mason said.

Sallewsky told at least one of the child personas he was a teacher.

He knew what he was doing was wrong, the prosecutor said.

“Some 50-year-old guy chatting with a 14-year-old does raise some eyebrows,” he messaged one persona. He was actually 55.

“Am I a pedo?” he asks.

The persona says she doesn’t know what that means.

“You know: pedophile,” Sallewsky says. “Creepy guy that goes after underage girls.”

He also says: “Listen, I like you as a girl and I will not feel guilty if I get into trouble. I’m not backing out!! I still want this with you.”

In a message the day before they planned to meet, Sallewsky says he’s nervous that “you might not be real or who you say you are.” He tells her he could get in trouble for “luring and taking advantage.”

“Mr. Sallewsky is fully aware the conduct he’s engaging in is abhorrent,” Mason said. “He doesn’t care, he does it anyways.”

After Sallewsky was arrested, Waterloo Regional Police asked anyone with information or who may have been a victim to call them.

The Waterloo Region District School Board, after his arrest, said he had been assigned to home and was not allowed to be on school properties or access school board communication tools.

On the Ontario College of Teachers website, Sallewsky’s status is listed as “cancelled-resigned.”

Sallewsky got a bachelor’s degree in education in 1992 from the University of Western Ontario (now Western University) in London and a master’s degree in education in 2001 from Brock University in St. Catharines.

Before becoming the principal at Northlake, Sallewsky taught at a school in Hamilton, was a vice-principal in London and Tillsonburg and was a vice-principal at two Kitchener schools.

He has no prior record. His guilty pleas show he is remorseful, the judge said. He enrolled in counselling after being charged.

Sallewsky wrote an apology, which the judge read aloud.

“There are so many things that I regret,” he said. “I regret taking that first step that has so altered my family’s lives and mine. I regret having caused my wife so much doubt, pain, fear and anguish as she questioned our marriage and the man she had married.

“I regret the pain and sorrow I have caused my children … I regret the anguish, pain and sorrow and doubt that I have caused my former colleagues.”