Leblanc remains in prison; Only man convicted under Project Truth would likely re-offend if released: board

Cornwall Standard Freeholder

19 January 2008

Posted By Elisabeth Johns

The only man convicted from Project Truth investigations was ordered to remain in prison due to his likelihood to re-offend.

Jean-Luc Leblanc, 63, was up for statutory release by law as he has served two-thirds of his eight and a half year sentence. In a ruling handed down by the National Parole Board and obtained by the Standard-Freeholder, Leblanc was ordered to remain in detention.

A three-panel board hearing determined if Leblanc was released he would commit a sexual offence involving a child.

He didn't show up to his own hearing.

The school bus driver, from Newington, was charged with a total of 48 sex abuse charges against 12 boys and one girl.

He pleaded guilty to 18 of the 48 counts in 2001. He started serving his sentence in April 2002.

He has been declared a long-term offender.

When he is released from prison, he will still be under supervision by the Correctional Service of Canada for another 10 years, said Sonia Lacroix, spokesperson for the National Parole Board.

In the decision, the board members pointed to Leblanc's participation in an intensive therapy sex offender treatment program.

In that program, Leblanc described his attraction to young people as "deep-seated" and said he only regretted his actions because it meant he could no longer be around children.

He twice underwent two plethysmographic evaluations, a test to determine a person's arousal, which showed results testifying to Leblanc's preference for young children, mainly boys.

Four of Leblanc's victims testified at the Cornwall Public Inquiry. They talked about the coercive methods he would use - offering them gifts like marijuana, toys and trips - to establish relationships with them.

According to the evidence before the board, Leblanc has told his case workers he still maintains the same belief that "pedophilia is love for children."

He had also been convicted in 1986 on two counts of gross indecency. The panel members noted when he was taking part in treatment for sex offences for two years at that time, he committed the assaults which resulted in his current sentence.

Leblanc's case will be up again for in November 2008.

He is up for parole Oct. 21, 2010.

Leblanc was the first and only person convicted out of the Ontario Provincial Police's Project Truth unit.

Between 1997 and 2001, Project Truth investigators would lay 115 charges against 15 men.

ejohns@standard-freeholder.com