Fraser Valley music teacher who pleaded guilty to criminal harassment of teenage students appeals conviction, claims law is wrong
Bevin van Liempt argues criminal harassment law is unconstitutional, pursues defamation lawsuits against victims’ mothers, music school, media
June 8, 2026
Legal defeat after legal defeat hasn't deterred former Chilliwack Symphony Orchestra president and Bakerview Music Academy choral instructor Bevin van Liempt who, in addition to filing lawsuits against anything that moves, is now appealing his conviction – and/or possibly the sentence – for criminal harassment.
Van Liempt was finally sentenced for two counts of criminal harassment in Abbotsford provincial court on March 12, 2026, by Judge Paul Sandhu in a case that stretches back to April 2023 when one of his victims, EG, started to get scared about the creepy and inappropriate texts from van Liempt who was trying to get her to date him.
The 17-year-old thought it was odd her choral teacher wanted to give her private viola lessons given he doesn’t know how to play the viola. There was also his promise he could get her into any university music program based on his word, then the text when he told her he wanted to hear her “moan.” That led to speaking to adults shortly after which van Liempt was fired from Bakerview Music Academy and he began his litigious campaign with emails and threats of civil action to everyone involved.
His victim’s fear escalated once she turned 18 as she knew that he knew she was a legal adult and the torment continued. She went to the Abbotsford Police Department who investigated, and later the Public Prosecution Service charged him with criminal harassment.
Mid-trial in December 2024, he settled on a new target, another 17-year-old music student. Over the holidays he began heaping praise upon her in emails, complimenting her looks and her ability, eventually asking her out to dinner.
As he himself put it in court as a defence of his actions, he wasn't pursuing these girls for dates when they were minors. He was grooming them for a relationship once they turned 18.
His problem, beyond the incredibly inappropriate behaviour by a music instructor in his 30s toward teenage music students, was that neither girl wanted anything to do with him and he wouldn’t take no for an answer.
“I will continue when you are 18 even if you tell me to 'fuck off,’” the 34-year-old van Liempt wrote in an email to his second victim, 17-year-old AY.
While EG sent him a polite email asking him to leave her alone, which he did not, AY could not have been more unequivocal.
“I am not interested in you. You have created a drunken, insane delusion in your mind. I find you a repulsive, pathetic freak. I have no desire to be with you or ever see you again,” she wrote Dec. 28, 2024.
This led to a second charge of criminal harassment. Mid-trial for the case involving EG, van Liempt pleaded guilty to both charges but then changed his mind.
He blamed a court-appointed lawyer assisting him, then he later blamed his paid lawyer Martin Finch for advising him poorly. Self-represented, his bid to revoke his guilty pleas failed. Later his half-dozen Charter applications were deemed “manifestly frivolous,” by Judge Paul Sandhu who refused to hear them.
His multiple breaches in 2025 led to himself spending more than 150 days in custody at the Surrey Pretrial Centre where he claimed recently in court he was “almost killed,” despite no specific report of any injuries.
He was able to drag the case on, tormenting his victims to no end, culminating in two defamation lawsuits he filed: one against Bakerview Music Academy’s staff and board, including EG’s mother; and one against AY’s mother, two court watchers in the music community, and this reporter.
“The complainants have been enduring ongoing torment with what the Crown submits is vexatious litigation with respect to all these matters,” prosecutor James Barbour told the court in January 2026 at his sentencing hearing. “The complainant in this matter, as you have seen in their victim impact statements, are essentially tormented and their life is turned upside down as a result of the actions of Mr. van Liempt toward them.”
He was finally sentenced on March 12, 2026, to 60 days for the criminal harassment of EG, and 90 days for AY, in part because of the inherent abuse because she was still a minor during the offences. Because he spent way more than that in pre-trial custody, the sentenced amounted to time served followed by three years probation.
“He portrayed surprise that others found his approach and communication to be inappropriate,” Judge Sandhu said at sentencing. “
Mr. van Liempt takes no responsibility for his actions and believes he, along with EG and AY, are being victimized by people who have no understanding of him or his true intentions.”
As a mitigating factor at sentencing, van Liempt claimed the public attention on the case should warrant some credit, a claim rejected by Judge Sandhu.
“He committed these offences having been a music teacher in a private music academy in a relatively small community. Media coverage in such circumstances was inevitable and not a fact that was disputed by the Crown. I also recognize that in cases such as this it may be expected that members of the public or within the small music community will form divergent and strongly held views.”
On it goes
A Facebook post from van Liempt soon after sentencing summarized his delusion or his refusal to accept what the case was really about: “It’s emails. In one case, emails that the victim did not even read. You read that right. Nine unread emails. No exaggeration.”
In that post, he also anticipated the appeal for which he was in BC Supreme Court on Monday (June 8, 2026) at 2 p.m. for a fix-date appearance.
“I’ll be appealing, and in all likelihood I’m gonna take a swing at the law itself via constitutional challenge,” he wrote in March, a reference to his “manifestly frivolous” attempt in court in January to argue that the criminal harassment provision in the criminal code is a violation of his Charter-protected right to free expression.
Also since his sentencing, he refers to himself on his Facebook account’s bio as a “barely legal enthusiast,” a reference to a sub-genre of pornography aimed at men who like to watch sex with women who appear to be underage but who are not.
As for his lawsuits, Bakerview Music Academy has a lawyer working on their defence, and this reporter has filed an application under B.C.’s anti-SLAPP legislation, the Protection of Public Participation Act (PPPA).
This is a text-book case of what is known as a strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP), and a hearing to have it tossed out was held in BC Supreme Court in Chilliwack on May 14 and 15.
Justice Elizabeth McDonald heard the case and deferred her decision to an unspecified date in early June.
As for van Liempt’s appeal, that was put over in BC Supreme Court in Abbotsford to Friday, June 12 for a pre-hearing conference to discuss the parameters of the appeal. Because van Liempt is making an application on constitutional grounds, there may be a question about the involvement of someone in addition to assigned Crown counsel out of the Abbotsford office.
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Paul J. Henderson
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