A former English teacher from Drummondville unable to recognize the seriousness of his crime even though he distributed and had in his possession hundreds of illegal images showing sexual assault on children will have 18 months to think behind bars.
• Also read: Child pornography: a Drummondville teacher who owned more than 400 illegal files pleads guilty
“He is an intelligent person, but who seems incapable of recognizing his real difficulties, which weakens his rehabilitation process,” lamented Judge Conrad Chapdelaine Tuesday afternoon at the Drummondville courthouse.
Jean-Michel Fontaine then received 18 months in prison for possession and distribution of child pornography.
The English teacher in a high school in Drummondville was arrested in the fall of 2021 in one of the Sûreté du Québec’s biggest strikes in terms of cyber exploitation of children.
400 files
The police found in his computer equipment more than 415 files representing children aged 6 to 15 having sexual relations with adults or with each other.
In the space of about three weeks, he also downloaded around thirty images of girls “aged between 2 and 8 years old showing off [leurs parties intimes] close-up or having sexual relations with men,” according to a summary of facts filed when he pleaded guilty in January.
His IP address, active on file sharing networks, had been monitored by the police for months.
Before his arrest, Fontaine was rather known in the region for his involvement in the musical world, notably organizing slam evenings. He now works in lawn mowing for the diocese of Drummondville.
Addicted to pornography
During the sentencing observations, he gave surprising testimony, making “sometimes equivocal, sometimes contradictory remarks,” according to Judge Chapdelaine.
For example, Fontaine claimed to have been aware of his heavy addiction to pornography for several years to the point where he installed parental controls. He also admitted to using sharing software to access child pornography for a year.
Conversely, the ex-teacher also lied to his own psychiatrist, to a worker and to a sexologist as part of a pre-sentence report.
Former teacher Jean-Michel Fontaine pleaded guilty to possession and distribution of child pornography.
Archive photo
“He denied having a desire to find illegal content and feeling attracted to it. He even told him that he had not seen child attacks even though he now recognizes that this is false,” the magistrate cited examples in his judgment.
The 38-year-old man is “unable to recognize the seriousness of his actions”. He also hoped that the judge would declare the minimum sentence of one year ineffective against him so that he could serve his sentence at home. The Crown wanted him to be sentenced to 30 months in detention.
For Judge Chapdelaine, his lack of “transparency with stakeholders makes it difficult to maintain that there is little risk of repeat offenses.”
Fontaine will be placed on the sex offenders register for 20 years. He will also be prohibited from holding any job that would place him in a position of authority over minors for 10 years.