A man who shared child pornography on Facebook and was arrested two years later for taking children to the zoo while awaiting trial, despite being banned from doing so, hopes to regain his freedom for Christmas.
“I have a lot of regrets. By going to these sites, I did not realize the extent of the damage that it could do,” Manuel Luis testified Thursday morning at the Montreal courthouse.
This locksmith from Montreal North implored Judge Roxane Laporte to release him when she delivers her sentence, due to the last months he has already spent in prison.
“Since being in prison, I have had a lot of time to reflect and introspect. I was able to understand that what I did was really very, very bad,” he said from the dock.
Luis was caught for the first time in 2020 following a report from Facebook concerning a consumer of child pornography who shared files on its platform. Investigators were able to trace the 53-year-old man, who was quickly arrested.
More than 14,500 photos and 1,200 videos of child pornography were found on Luis’s computer, most of them depicting prepubescent children.
Recidivism
After his appearance, the man was released under important conditions.
But two years later, the Montreal Police Department received a report from the United States concerning an individual sharing child pornography files. It was Luis again.
When the police went to the accused’s home to arrest him, they saw him leaving with a dog on a leash. He was then followed and arrested in his car in the presence of children aged three and seven, on his way to the zoo.
Under his release conditions, Luis was not allowed to be around children or dogs because he was originally charged with bestiality. However, the charges have since been withdrawn.
The police also found more than 6,000 photos and 3,000 videos of child pornography in his home, even though Luis was not allowed to have internet access while awaiting his trial.
“Child pornography is very intense, of the hardcore type,” noted Crown prosecutor M.e Karine Lagacé-Paquette.
She therefore requested that Luis receive a four-year prison sentence.
“The accused’s lack of introspection tells us that the risk of repeat offenses cannot be ruled out,” she argued.
Judge Laporte will deliver her judgment at the end of December.