Ottawa Citizen
12 April 2011
Andrew Seymour
OTTAWA — A former high-school teacher, Boy Scout leader and pedophile who already admitted to sexually molesting four young girls also pleaded guilty on Monday to possessing child pornography.
For all the offences, prosecutors are now seeking a six-year prison sentence for Yves Lafortune, 45, who once taught at Ecole secondaire catholique Béatrice-Desloges in Orleans.
According to an agreed statement of facts, Lafortune had more than 1,400 images of child pornography along with at least 58 videos, which showed the graphic sexual abuse of children as young as three.
One of the videos showed a man in a clown mask sexually abusing a child, said assistant Crown attorney John Ramsay. The images and videos were seized following Lafortune’s arrest last May in connection with a year-long international child pornography sting by the Toronto police using intelligence gathered during the arrest of Robin Barrett, a 51-year-old Anglican priest in Conception Bay South, Newfoundland and Labrador
Lafortune, who used several online names, including “Hornyuncle” and “Hornyguy” , shared with an undercover detective a picture of a naked four-year-old girl in a sexual pose. He was arrested as he drove away from the school where he worked on May 27.
Lafortune pleaded guilty in December to two counts of sexual interference for incidents that occurred with the four girls, who were between the ages of six and 11, between 2001 and 2010. Lafortune touched the children sexually, according to an agreed statement of facts.
Lafortune, who wore wire-rimmed glasses in court and had his long brown hair tied back in a ponytail, sat leaning against the wall with his eyes closed as Ramsay read in French victim impact statements from three of the children he had molested and two of their parents.
A psychiatrist who examined Lafortune found he was a pedophile, Ramsay said. The psychiatrist also found that Lafortune could suppress his pedophilia but chooses not to, Ramsay told the court.
“It’s only now that he’s caught that he wants help,” said Ramsay, who asked Ontario Court Justice Lise Maisonneuve to sentence Lafortune – who has been in jail since his arrest in May – to six years in prison.
Lafortune’ lawyer, Michel Bisson, was expected to make his submissions Tuesday.
aseymour@ottawacitizen.com