13 charged after Quebec and Ontario police busted an online pedophile ring
CBC News  |
| Sûreté du Québec |
Thirteen men were arrested and charged after Quebec and Ontario police busted an online pedophile ring on Wednesday.
Two of the men, Claude Paquette and David Turcotte, volunteered as group leaders for the scout troupe Adventurer Association of Baden-Powell.
It's not clear if the two men knew each other, Nicolas Rousseau, vice-president of the association, said.
"We're very shocked. Personally, I don't know this person, but they took all the necessary steps to be animators," he said, referring to background checks and other forms.
Neither were the subject of complaints from parents or kids, and both are no longer allowed to volunteer, he said.
"We work with the most precious things of these parents. We work hard, we believe in what we do. We hope that parents won't stop having confidence in us," Rousseau said.
This is what is known about some of the suspects.
(Sûreté du Québec)
Paquette has been a Grade 3 Teacher at the École Primaire Île-des-Soeurs in Nuns' Island since last November. Parents at the school have been alerted to his arrest and he has been suspended with pay.
"Until now, there had been no complaints about him within the school board," said Barbara Blondeau, a spokesperson for the Marguerite-Bourgeoys school board.
The school board is offering psychological counselling to students, parents and teachers.
Parents of students at the elementary school said they were stunned by the news.
"I'm just really shocked...it's really shocking," said Sahar Soodbakhsh, the mother of a Grade 1 student.
"You're just not feeling safe when you find that maybe something happened like this in a school, but I feel we are in a century where this is happening everywhere. So we have to [warn] our children about these problems."
"I feel sad for the kids. But I'm very confident that the school did everything they needed to do...He hasn't been there for a long time — just three months," said Isabelle Legris, the mother of a child in Grade 2 who said she didn't know the teacher. "I feel very good now that he's not there anymore."
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| David Turcotte, 36 (Sûreté du Québec) |
Paquette was also a teacher in Saskatchewan and elsewhere in Quebec. He was charged with production and distribution of child pornography.
Turcotte was a scout leader for five years with a scout troupe in the Montéregie. He was expelled last July for breach of code of conduct, when he was accused of driving a child home by himself.
He was also accused of making a recording of children.
(Sûreté du Québec)
The youngest of the 13 accused, Chételat is an assistant professor at HEC Montreal since June 2015. HEC Montreal is a well-respected university business school
He was suspended with pay following his charges on Thursday.
Jonathan St-Pierre 28
(Sûreté du Québec)
He pleaded guilty in 2007 to distribution of child pornography and was sentenced to two years in detention.
He also faced consecutive one-year sentences for luring a child, six months for two counts of conspiracy and six months for fabricating evidence.
(Sûreté du Québec)
He was charged in February last year with distribution, possession and accessing child pornography.
He later faced additional charges of possession and accessing child pornography in October and December, as well as four counts of failure to comply with conditions. Those charges are still pending.
Patrick Charbonneau, 36
Charbonneau had two peace bonds filed against him by unknown persons: one in 1999 and another in 2002.
Jean-Marc Saint-Hilaire, 66
He is accused of having advised a person, so far unidentified, of committing a criminal act of producing child pornography. The offense was not committed.
There are warrants for the arrest of two other men.
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