A 50-year pedophile flouted his strict supervision conditions by using a computer for seven years to view pornography. Repeat offender François Daragon was caught producing child pornography and faces a significant prison sentence.
A father is looking for his 10 year old son. But where did he go? In panic, the father discovers to his amazement that the boy is watching a pornographic film with a little girl at a neighbor’s house, a sexual predator who has no right to be with children. It was in 2006.
For this crime and sexual acts committed against seven children, François Daragon was sentenced to eight years in prison. Declared a long-term offender, he was subject to a long-term supervision order of 10 years. This was due to end in April 2023.
But two months before the order expired, the 75-year-old man was caught red-handed. Accused last spring, he pleaded guilty at the end of November at the Montreal courthouse to charges of possession and production of child pornography.
High risk of recurrence
It was his relationship with an offender in a halfway house that caused his downfall. His parole officer had asked him to avoid contact with this woman. However, he sent her “naughty” photos of himself wearing women’s clothes. It was obvious that the photos had been altered by computer, although he was prohibited from using one.
François Daragon then admitted to using a computer for seven years to consume pornography. However, he claims not to have “found what he wanted” in terms of child pornography. Thus, he produced them by modifying with software photos of dressed children on the Internet in order to make them “sexually arousing by adding the sexual organs”. He had 42 files of child child pornography.
François Daragon’s profile is cause for concern. In 2006, he received the highest rating for risk of repeat sexual offenses. A sexological evaluation revealed his deviant sexual interests towards young children.
In 1972, François Daragon was arrested for indecent actions. In the 1990s, he was convicted multiple times for exhibitionism in front of children, for inciting sexual contact and for indecent assault.
“There is, according to you, a much higher number of victims than that officially recorded,” indicates the Parole Board of Canada in a decision rendered in 2020.
Observations on the sentence are scheduled for next February.
Me Sylvie Bordelais defends the accused, while Me Kahina Rougeau Daoud represents the public prosecutor.