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NOVEMBER 16, 2018 | Volume 31 No. 92
FRIDAY
Page A28 is your guide to myriad events in the city and region
THE KBIA’S WORK Meet the people behind the Kamloops Brain Injury Association, one of five charities being helped in this year’s KTW Christmas Cheer Fund, and find out how you can help A3
HOW WE VOTE The argument for and against proportional representation A10
A MARVEL
TRU professor reflects on friendship with Stan Lee A5
WEEKEND WEATHER: Sunny and cool High 5 C Low -5 C
‘IT’S BEEN A TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCE’ TRU professor David Scheffel talks to KTW about his legal ordeal in Slovakia During a Skype interview with KTW from Slovakia, David Scheffel holds up a monitoring device he must carry with him as part of his bail conditions.
MICHAEL POTESTIO
STAFF REPORTER
michael@kamloopsthisweek.com
David Scheffel spends much of his time trying to mend fences with his wife and children. The 63-year-old Kamloops resident and anthropology professor at Thompson Rivers University spent 10 months in a Slovakian prison and has been out on bail for a little more than a month. He faces charges of child pornography, sexual violence and arms trafficking. Speaking to KTW via Skype from his home in Prešov, where he resides as his trial continues to unfold, Scheffel’s eyes welled up with tears as he blamed himself for the separation from his family in Canada. “It’s been a traumatic experience for my family because during those 10 months, we were almost cut off. It was terrible,” said a visibly distraught Scheffel. More than 8,000 kilometres away from home, he takes solace in simple pleasures of his newfound freedom — waking up in his
own bed, eating proper food and not being roused at 6 a.m. by the pounding of a jail guard at a cell door. Scheffel is bound by courtordered conditions, one of which requires him to remain within a 20-kilometre radius of Prešov — a condition enforced by an electronic ankle monitor he is required to wear.
“I enjoy every day, in spite of the dark cloud hanging over my head,” he said. The most serious charge he faces could result in a 15-year prison sentence, if he is convicted. Scheffel maintains his innocence and suspects the accusations may have been fabricated by police in an attempt to discredit him and his research into the
marginalized Romani people of the Eastern European country — research that has focused on rampant juvenile prostitution. This past Monday, the father of a Romani girl — one of his research subjects who triggered the initial sexual misconduct charges — didn’t show up to court, Scheffel said. He said one of his witnesses confirmed having heard directly from the family of the father of the girl that the accusation had been fabricated in the expectation of financial benefits. A tape of Scheffel’s conversation with the girl was also played in court to demonstrate falsehoods in her statements to police, he said. The trial will resume on Dec. 3 and continue the next day. Scheffel expects proceedings will stretch into 2019. “I don’t know how many more sessions this is going to require, but it will be a few more months at
least,” Scheffel said, noting there has been about one hearing per month since the trial began in July. Between 2015 and 2017, Scheffel conducted about 200 interviews with Romani who identified as sex workers or who had information about factors that led the Romani into the sex-trade industry. Scheffel said photographs from his laptop that were being viewed by Slovak authorities as child pornography were of nude and seminude Roma children, which he said is “a standard scene captured by many visitors to these impoverished and chaotic communities.” He told KTW other pictures the prosecution referenced included one of his youngest daughter after her delivery at Royal Inland Hospital. One of his criminal charges relates to an old rifle that belonged to his father. He said he had no ammunition for the rifle, nor did he have a licence required to own the gun, which led to the arms charge. See SCHEFFEL, A11
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