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Teacher who threatened to ‘unleash sextortion hell’ on pupil jailed for 35 years

A teacher has been sent to jail for 35 years after courts saw a serious of uncomfortable videos and messages he made with one of his students – claiming their relationship was ‘consensual’

Christopher Bendann
Christopher Bendann has been sentenced to 35 years in jail(Image: CBS)

A former teacher was arrested and sentenced after a huge sex abuse scandal, which saw him terrorise several victims.

Christopher Bendann, who previously taught at the Gilman School in Roland Park, was found guilty of five counts of sexual exploitation of a child, three counts of possession of child sexual abuse material, and one count of cyberstalking. He was initially arrested in 2023 for sexually abusing a student. Following an extensive trial, his crimes are thought to be some of the worst sexual assault examples brought to court.

The trial did not go smoothly, with Bendann refusing to leave his cell on the first day to appear in court. Later on, he expressed dissatisfaction with his lawyers, saying: “I’m disappointed with my legal team for not allowing me to speak to the media, which I have requested several times.”

Christopher Bendann
Christopher Bendann used to teach at an all-boys school(Image: Baltimore County Police Department)

Lawyers suggested Bendann used his position as a teacher to manipulate students. However, he was caught out after several videos were found on his hard drive.

The teacher produced multiple videos from September 2017 to February 2019. In them, he engaged in explicit acts with a student, who was 16 and 17 years old at the time.

While he tried initially to cover them up, the videos were recovered in Bendann’s iCloud. After this, he was said to incessantly cyberstalked the same student with phone messages, while demanding explicit messages in return.

All of the evidence was shared in court, even one of the twisted videos produced by Bendann. He also allegedly told the victim he would “unleash hell” if he did not immediately send explicit messages over the phone.

Christopher Bendann
Courts saw video evidence of Bendann’s acts(Image: WBAL)

His defence suggested the relationship was consensual, as the victim was 18 at the time. However, this was fought back with evidence messages that he cyberstalked the victim, saying he “lost his mind when [the victim] was leaving high school and moving on.”

This was not the first time the school came under fire, as it was revealed that Luigi Mangione, the man charged with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, attended the all-boys academy before he graduated in 2016.

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Mangione was a well-decorated classmate and a former school friend James Sandberg said “he was a nice kid”.

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