The Case of Dr. John Schneeberger

Archive of published reports

Sask. Doctor Sentenced for Rape

Originally published by CBC News, November 27, 1999

REGINA — A judge in Saskatchewan has sentenced Dr. John Schneeberger to six years for sexually assaulting two female patients and trying to fool DNA experts by inserting a tube of another man's blood into his arm.

Dr. John Schneeberger was found guilty by a judge in Regina Thursday.

In one case, Schneeberger drugged a woman before raping her in the examining room of a rural hospital in Kipling, Sask.

Prosecutors said he gave her a powerful anesthestic, Versed, that left her unable to move or cry out for help before attacking her in 1992.

Schneeberger, 38, was also convicted of sexually assaulting a second patient twice—once in 1994, and again in 1995.

But the judge acquitted him on a charge of using a sedative in those attacks. He was also found not guilty of endangering a life with improper use of drugs.

The doctor almost got away with his crime by slicing open his arm in an act of gruesome skulduggery.

During the trial, Schneeberger admitted placing a plastic tube full of a male patient's blood into his arm to try to trick police investigating the women's allegations against him.

On three occasions—in 1992, 1993, and 1996—a lab technician withdrew blood from his arm for police, but in each case the sample came from the tube instead of his vein.

At first police doubted the women's allegations because the DNA blood samples did not match the rapist's semen.

Detectives eventually charged the doctor after obtaining a sample of his hair, which matched the semen but not the earlier blood.

In addition to sexual assault, Schneeberger was convicted of obstructing justice.

A small crowd jeered him as he was handcuffed and led away from the courthouse Thursday.

"This is a glorious day that I've waited for for seven years," said one of the victims, now 29.

"I hope he rots because that's exactly what he deserves for all the hurt (he) caused," she said.

Court System Endangers Our Children Once Again, Charges Thompson

Press Release: Myron Thompson, MP, Ottawa

May 27, 2001

OTTAWA — Myron Thompson, Member of Parliament for Wild Rose, says he is disgusted that Lisa Dillman, a Red Deer mother must comply with a court order to take her two young daughters to Bowden penitentiary this Sunday to visit their convicted sex offender father, John Schneeberger.

"What makes this case so disgusting is the fact that one of Schneeberger's victims was his own stepdaughter. How could our court system order two little girls to visit a convicted sex offender in jail? What has our system come to?" questioned Thompson.

John Schneeberger, a former doctor, was found guilty in 1999 of two counts of sexual assault, administering a stupefying drug and obstruction of justice. Since that time he won a Saskatchewan court ruling allowing him visits with his daughters, aged 5 and 6.

"Once again, our bleeding heart system has said that in order to rehabilitate inmates they must maintain contact with their family. As well, the system insists that these children must maintain contact with their parent for their proper development, even if the parent is incarcerated," said a frustrated Thompson.

"Is it not common sense that a parent's visitation rights should not be carried over into prison? Especially when he has been convicted of sexually assaulting one of his own family members? Children are supposed to be protected by our court system. Once again, the courts have exhibited little or no compassion. I would encourage Mrs. Dillman to raise the funds necessary and appeal this court decision and in the meantime if I were Mrs. Dillman I would be very tempted to defy the court order for this Sunday," concluded Thompson.

Court-Ordered Visit Stopped Before it Starts

Originally published by CBC News, May 28, 2001

CALGARY — A court ordered visit by two young Alberta girls to their imprisoned father, who's a convicted sex-offender, did not take place Sunday.

On Friday, Lisa Dillman of Red Deer was ordered to bring her daughters to Bowden Institution so they could visit John Schneeberger.

Schneeberger was convicted and sentenced to six years in prison in 1999 on two counts of sexual assault.

On Sunday, Dillman brought her five- and six-year-old girls to see their father. She was greeted by a huge crowd of supporters who symbolically blocked the way to the prison.

Once inside the prison, but before they saw Schneeberger, the two little girls burst into tears, grabbed their mother's legs and begged to go home.

A social worker then stepped in to stop the encounter before it took place.

"I'm glad it's over. I'm just relieved it's over. I just want to go home and take my little girls with me," said Dillman.

The scene may be repeated. The court order says the girls must be brought back in four weeks.

Father May Make Parole Before Girls' Visit

Originally published by CBC News, May 28, 2001

EDMONTON — John Schneeberger could be on day-parole before his children's next court-ordered visit.

He's serving six years for sex offences against two females when he was a doctor in Saskatchewan in 1999.

Yesterday, in an apparent attempt to comply with a court order, the children's mother, Lisa Dillman took the children to Bowden Institution. The three were met by about a hundred protesters and the visit was terminated by a social worker accompanying the family.

Dillman is required to make another attempt to let her children see Schneeberger June 24, 2001.

But, his parole hearing is scheduled for either June 20 or June 21. Typically, the parole board makes its decision on the day of a hearing.

McLellan Won't Legislate on Visitation Rights and Imprisoned Sex Offenders

Originally published by CBC News, May 28, 2001

CALGARY — The Federal Minister of Justice says Canada does not need a new law to prevent children from having to visit parents who are in prison for sex offences.

Lisa Dillman of Red Deer is fighting to stop any visits by her two young daughters to her ex-husband, John Schneeberger, in the Bowden Institution.

The father is in jail for sexually assaulting two people, including his stepdaughter.

"Keep in mind, this is a family law dispute. It doesn't involve the state. It is between a mother and a father," says Anne McLellan, in Ottawa. "It is about who has custody and who has access and as I've said, the court makes that determination based on what is in the best interest of the child or children," explains the minister.

Red Deer Alliance MP Bob Mills has been calling on McLellan to create a law that would prevent children from having to visit sex offenders.

Lisa Dillman's two daughters are scheduled to visit their father again in Bowden next month.

Forced to Visit

Originally published by CBC News, May 29, 2001

When courts wade into battles over custody and visitation rights, one principle is supposed to be paramount: the well-being of the children involved. How then to explain the dreadful plight of Lisa Dillman and her two young daughters?

Ms. Dillman, of Red Deer, Alta., had hoped to spend this past Sunday picnicking in a park with her children, aged 5 and 6. Instead, the small family reluctantly found itself at the centre of a media circus at nearby Bowden Institution, where Ms. Dillman's former husband, Saskatchewan doctor John Schneeberger, is serving six years for sexual assault.

One of Dr. Schneeberger's victims was a patient, 22 at the time. The other was his own stepdaughter, now 15, Ms. Dillman's child from a previous relationship. At trial, there emerged the horrifying picture of a predator who not only drugged his patient before attacking her, but also lied about it and strove repeatedly to cheat justice by providing police with false blood samples for DNA tests. Only after his stepdaughter stepped forward to say that she, too, had been abused was Dr. Schneeberger convicted.

That was 18 months ago, at which point Ms. Dillman perhaps thought it was all behind her. But no. Dr. Schneeberger is father to Ms. Dillman's two young daughters, he wanted access to them, and shortly before he was sentenced a Saskatchewan judge granted that access. The ruling remains in place despite Ms. Dillman's efforts to overturn it, and even though the two youngsters apparently have little memory of their father and only the vaguest idea why he is behind bars.

Now their understanding of events is presumably clearer.

After failing to get the one-visit-a-month court order reversed in Saskatchewan, Ms. Dillman tried to get it reversed in Alberta. But the Alberta judge decided the matter was beyond his jurisdiction, and he rejected the suggestion that the case was special. "I do not accept the proposition that these girls face a serious risk of harm," he said.

Too bad the judge wasn't at the Bowden prison on Sunday. Surrounded by dozens of supporters and a clutch of television cameras, Ms. Dillman and her daughters ventured inside to comply with the court order. She had asked that, if there had to be such a meeting, it take place in a hotel. No, prison authorities responded. Dr. Schneeberger was deemed too dangerous.

In the event, the rendezvous was abandoned when the traumatized children broke into tears and tried to hide.

Convicted prisoners do not automatically forfeit all their rights, including access to their children. But this case is different, not least because Dr. Schneeberger's victims include his own stepdaughter, who joined the protest at the prison gates. Given what we know, Ms. Dillman was struggling to do what all mothers should do: protect her family. The visitation order inflicted upon that family should be overturned as soon as possible.

Jailed Father Changes Mind on Visits From Children

Originally published by CBC News, June 1, 2001

Bowden, Alta. — A Saskatchewan doctor serving time in an Alberta jail for sexual assault is giving up attempts to see his daughters, the CBC said. John Schneeberger's lawyer released a letter yesterday in which Dr. Schneeberger said he will not see his children while serving his sentence in the Bowden Institution. Dr. Schneeberger's ex- wife obeyed a court order last Sunday and took her daughters to see their father. But the visit was called off when the girls became upset and a social worker cancelled the meeting.

Saskatchewan's sexual assault doctor now in South Africa

Originally published by CBC News, July 22, 2004

A Zambian-born doctor who planted a tube in his arm filled with someone else's blood to divert a Saskatchewan sexual assault investigation arrived in South Africa Wednesday after Canada deported him.



Leslie Mashokwe, the head of communications for South Africa's Department of Home Affairs, told CBC that John Schneeberger has the status of "permanent resident" of that country, and will live at his mother's home in Durban.



Schneeberger was convicted in 1999 on two sexual assault charges, as well as a count of obstructing justice.



When investigators accused Schneeberger of sexual assault in 1992 and took blood samples from him, the DNA didn't match that from the crime scene.



Schneeberger had planted a plastic tube filled with someone else's blood in his arm. When he was ordered to provide a blood sample, he offered to do the procedure himself and took it from the plastic tube in his arm instead of from his vein.



Allegations from another victim eventually led to Schneeberger's 1999 conviction.



He gave his first victim, then 23, a paralysing drug before assaulting her in a hospital examining room. The second victim was a teenager molested in 1994 and 1995.



Schneeberger served two-thirds of a six-year sentence and had hoped to remain in Regina. But Citizenship and Immigration officials ordered his deportation in June of this year.



Schneeberger came to Canada in 1987 and became a citizen in 1993. His citizenship was revoked in December 2003 after officials discovered he had lied on his application.



His status then reverted to that of permanent resident, clearing the way for the deportation order.