By sexually abusing pupils sometimes as young as 10 years old, an elementary school teacher completely destroyed them, testified several of them, while the Crown claims up to eight years in prison.
“I lost interest in life, I let go of sports and extracurricular activities. I live with a feeling of helplessness … Now, I think about it less, but I have not forgotten anything”, testified in a letter to the court one of the five victims of Dominic Blanchette, this Monday at the palace of Justice of Montreal.
A second victim, for his part, says he is still trying to understand why she had been targeted, while another still lives in insecurity, deploring the fact of having been “the perfect target” of the fallen teacher.
Handcuffed in the dock, Blanchette, 28, kept her head down as she listened to these words, which are the direct result of her crimes committed on pre-teen girls from 2017 to 2022, including one who was in foster care.
Manipulator
At the time, Blanchette was teaching at the elementary level at the Commission scolaire de la Pointe-de-l’Île. However, he had used his status to abuse young students after gaining their trust by manipulating them.
“You gave me attention, you were sacred to me, I revered you,” said one of the victims in a letter to the court, while saying she was aware that he had abused her solitude .
The pedophile teacher thus acted as a confidant, he took them to restaurants, cuddled them… all to obtain sexual favors, whether online, where he talked about his fantasies, in person, or even sometimes in the middle of the classroom while watching a film.
During a sports camp, the pedophile teacher attacked an 11-year-old student by taking her to her bed and then trying sexual contact.
Blanchette, who has since lost his job, was arrested following a complaint filed by a mother who came across photos of Blanchette, naked.
He then pleaded guilty to charges ranging from sexual exploitation to sexual interference with minors under the age of 16. He also admitted possession of child pornography.
Penitentiary claimed
“I apologize for having caused inappropriate contact, for having spoken sexual words, I am sorry for the inappropriate photos, I realize the atrocity of my actions,” Blanchette dropped on Monday.
He then said he was aware of the “break in confidence” he had caused in the education system in Quebec.
“I seriously failed in my duty as a teacher, he said, emphasizing the courage of the victims to have denounced him. I’m going to get the help I need to never do it again, I know who I don’t want to be anymore.”
For mee Annabelle Sheppard, of the Crown, given the seriousness of the crimes and knowing that he had five victims, Blanchette should receive seven or eight years in prison. Me Laurence Juillet St-Jean said that at the request of his client who wishes to follow therapies and given the preventive detention, he should receive two years in prison, followed by probation.