Accused of having hatched a plan with her partner to molest the children she was babysitting, Julie Blackburn had in her computer equipment a total of 843 photos of child pornography as well as… a plan to open a daycare in family environment.
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This is what RCMP officer Philippe Gravel came to present to the court, who was on loan to the SPVQ when the file of Julie Blackburn and her partner Guy Boutin arrived on his desk.
In the computer belonging to the accused, a document entitled “My plan” attracted the attention of investigators.
Created in 2009 and amended one last time in 2015, the document presents a business plan for opening a daycare for children aged 18 months to 5 years. The establishment would have been called “Children’s Paradise” according to what the woman noted there.
In her police interrogation, she also broaches the subject, lamenting that her arrest risks derailing her project.
The whole thing is macabre knowing the heavy charges that now weigh against Julie Blackburn and those to which her partner Guy Boutin pleaded guilty last spring.
Twisted fantasies
According to the Crown’s theory, the couple set up a scheme to molest children by placing babysitting advertisements on the web. Julie Blackburn has also visited a family a few times to take care of a six-year-old girl. She photographed the child naked and sent the photos to her partner, admitting her guilt to counts of production and distribution of child pornography.
Thousands of text messages filed as evidence described the couple’s twisted fantasies. Messages contradicting Julie Blackburn’s attitude at the start of her police interrogation, presented in evidence on Friday.
- Listen to the interview with Christian Joyal, professor in the psychology department of the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières and researcher at the Philippe Pinel Institute in Montreal, via QUB radio :
“There are some who do that [la pornographie juvénile], but it doesn’t affect me. I find it extremely disgusting, but there are some who are excited by it,” the accused tells the investigator at the very beginning of their meeting.
However, in his messages with Guy Boutin, who called him his “favorite pedo”, Blackburn claimed to like young girls. “I’m attracted to small ones.”
“It’s a fantasy we had. […] I talked about it with him to please him,” she told the investigator in her interrogation.
Next in January
Crown prosecutor Louis-Philippe Desjardins said Friday that 843 photos of child pornography had been found on Julie Blackburn’s phone. Images showing prepubescent girls posing and going as far as complete sexual assault. Of the lot, 11 photos were of the child she looked after. The woman has admitted these facts, but intends to present a defense to the charges involving the development of a plan to molest children. According to his lawyer, Mr.e Louis Belliard, the accused would never have intended to take the action. The possibility of a defense of duress was raised throughout the proceedings, with Julie Blackburn considering pleading being under the yoke of Guy Boutin.
In the video of her interrogation, however, Julie Blackburn confides to the investigator that Boutin is her friend, her confidant. “He is kind and attentive.”
Is he controlling, the policewoman asks him?
“No, not at all,” says Julie Blackburn, who nevertheless admits a little further that the plan was Boutin’s idea.
The trial of the 35-year-old woman will continue in January with the position of the defense, which will also file a request to have the accused released. “Madame is not dangerous and she has been detained for two and a half years,” argued Me Belliard.