Canadian Teacher Suspended for Showing 'Cannibal' Murder Video

The video allegedly shows accused killer Luka Magnotta murdering Jun Lin.

ByABC News
June 14, 2012, 10:23 AM

June 14, 2012 — -- A Canadian teacher has been suspended for showing high school students a video that police believe depicts accused killer porn actor Luka Magnotta murdering and dismembering his Chinese student lover.

Magnotta, 29, allegedly stabbed Lin to death, hacked up his body and mailed Jun Lin's body parts to two Canadian government offices and Vancouver schools. Magnotta sparked an international manhunt when he fled Montreal and was captured in Berlin on June 4.

In addition to the killing and mutilation, the video also allegedly shows Magnotta taking a fork and knife to the body and performing lewd acts with the body parts, police said. Authorities have said that Magnotta posted the video online and by the time police got it removed, copies had already been made that can be found online.

Now, a Montreal teacher is under fire for showing the grisly video to his high school class.

The Cavelier-De LaSalle high school said in a statement that it "condemns with one voice the action of a teacher that showed his students a video with content as inappropriate as it offensive."

"The event was taken very seriously by the establishment and CSMB [the school board] who will promptly put in place all necessary measures," the statement said.

The teacher, unnamed by the school, was suspended with pay on June 4, the same day the video was shown.

In the hours following the video's viewing, the school assembled a "crisis team of psychologists and psycho-educators" to be immediately available to the students. The team remained at the school for two days and a psychologist was present at the school for the rest of the week.

The school was scheduled to meet with the teacher on Wednesday to hear his side of the story before deciding the fate of his job. No decision has been announced yet and the school didn't respond to request for comment from ABCNews.com today.

A spokeswoman from the Montreal Police Department told ABCNews.com that it would be possible for the teacher to face legal consequences for showing the video, but no inquiries have been made yet or charges pressed.

"We're checking the facts and what has been said," the police spokeswoman said. "We're still doing some verification."

One possible ground for pressing charges against the teacher would be that he showed images of a crime, which can be a legal violation.

"There is a chance, but we're really far from that right now," police said.

At least one student defended the teacher's actions.

Maude Aubin-Boivin, 17, who was in the class where the video was shown, told the Associated Press that it was the students that asked to watch the video. After some hesitation from the teacher and some students, the class voted with a show of 22 to 3 that the video be shown.

Aubin-Boivin called the instructor a "very good teacher" and told the AP that he warned students that some of the images could be shocking.

"For sure, at the beginning I found it tough," she told the AP. "But I wasn't traumatized or anything. We see so much these days on TV."

Magnotta is currently in Berlin awaiting extradition to Canada. He is expected to be returned by the end of June.