A first-year Rouge et Or football player admitted his guilt in a case of possession of child pornography, the police having found three video files on his phone showing girls under 10 years old. He was immediately expelled from the Laval University sports program.
Maxime Boivin is the second Rouge et Or footballer to find himself before the courts since the start of the season after pass catcher Kevin Mittal, guilty of assault and acquitted unconditionally.
The offense alleged against the defensive lineman, however, dates from before his entry to Laval University.
Boivin, 20, admitted guilt to a charge of possession of child pornography. The SPVQ investigation concerning him was opened after a report from the Snapchat platform in December 2021 for a user who allegedly uploaded three compromising files.
The analysis of the account in question and the linked IP address will lead the police to the young man’s home in Quebec, where a search will take place in June 2022. The three files in question were found in his cell phone.
“Shocked and disgusted”
Crown prosecutor Me Louis-Philippe Desjardins described Monday morning during sentencing observations the content of the three videos lasting one to four minutes.
Maxime Boivin, defensive lineman for the Rouge et Or at Laval University. The 20-year-old pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography. CREDIT: Pierre-Paul Biron, Journal de Québec
Photo credit: Pierre-Paul Biron
We see girls aged 5 to 8 performing acts of a sexual nature towards adult men. According to the analysis of the footballer’s phone, the links had been there since June 2021, approximately six months before the report made by Snapchat.
The accused, however, assured judge Sandra Rioux on Monday that he did not feel any sexual excitement upon seeing the images, which he only viewed once after following links found on TikTok and Twitter.
“I was surprised, shocked, disgusted,” insisted the young man, saying he felt “great sadness for these children.”
However, Maxime Boivin struggled to explain why he uploaded the links to Snapchat in December 2021 to share them with another user. He notably indicated to the court that at that time he “wanted to get rid of it”.
When Judge Rioux questioned him as to why he had sent these links precisely if he had been disturbed by seeing them, Boivin was unable to offer a clear explanation.
His lawyer, Me Claude St-Hilaire, argued that his client had arrived at the videos by following links which did not indicate the content and that this was not what he was looking for. “His intentions were not malicious. He was not specifically looking for the videos he was able to view.”
Other viewings permitted
If he is only accused in connection with the three files found during the search, Maxime Boivin on the other hand admitted to a psychologist who evaluated him outside the case that he had consulted other pornographic links involving minors.
These images, however, involved people “closer to his age”, he who was 18 years old at the time of the facts.
Maxime Boivin admitted to having consulted “between 40 and 50 times”, then transmitted links to files showing adolescents “15-16-17 years old”.
“Did you know it was illegal? […] That it put you at risk,” asked the representative of the public prosecutor, Me Louis-Philippe Desjardins.
“I was aware that it was illegal, but I wasn’t thinking about my career during that,” admitted the first-year footballer, a graduate of Cégep Garneau.
The psychologist who evaluated him, Doctor Maxime Chrétien, however stressed that Boivin’s behavior does not indicate a pedophilic disorder for him. The doctor makes this observation since the majority of the elements consulted involved people “approaching his own stage of development”.
“The work he has to do has nothing to do with deviant sexual interests,” stressed the specialist, adding that the accused presented a “very good prognosis for the future”.
Contested minimum sentence
Maxime Boivin’s lawyer thus suggested to the judge the imposition of a sentence of 60 days of detention to be served intermittently, raising however that detention in the community could also be a possibility. Me Claude St-Hilaire thus filed a request to have the minimum sentence of six months provided for in the Criminal Code deemed unconstitutional.
“I believe that it would be clearly unjustified with regard to my client […] particularly given Dr. Chrétien’s analysis which concludes that there is no pedophilic disorder and a very low risk of recidivism,” argued the defense lawyer.
In prosecution, Me Louis-Philippe Desjardins stuck to the minimum sentence of six months provided for in the code, inviting Judge Rioux to also impose a ban on the accused using the Internet or digital networks to contact minors, access any content that contravenes the law and browse TikTok, Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook and other discussion forums.
Kicked from the program
It was Le Journal which informed the Rouge et Or of the case involving its student-athlete and the latter’s guilty plea.
“After having read the file and considering its nature, the Rouge et Or decided to expel Maxime Boivin from its excellence program. The legal procedure having already taken its course, this decision is effective immediately,” said the program management, adding that it took this situation “extremely seriously”.
Boivin did not play a game in his first college season due to a shoulder injury.