A 29-year-old former lawyer convicted of manufacturing child pornography for filming three teenagers in the toilet without their knowledge was sentenced to 12 months in prison on Thursday.
“This verdict fulfills the objectives of denunciation, redress and redress,” Judge Érick Vanchestein ruled at the Montreal Courthouse.
“The production of child pornography is an objectively serious crime that is strongly condemned by society and has serious consequences for the victims,” the judge added.
In addition to 12 months in prison, Samuel Beaugé-Malenfant also has to undergo 3 years of probation and is on the sex offender register for 20 years.
The ex-lawyer hoped to get away with a 90-day suspended sentence, while the Crown has called for 30 months in commemorating the defendant’s breach of trust in the victims.
It is that in 2018, Samuel Beaugé-Malenfant had installed a hidden camera in the toilets of a chalet to film the three teenagers aged 11, 13 and 17 of a couple he had invited.
The voyeur, who was a junior hockey coach, methodically repositioned the camera each time to get the perfect angle, but eventually got caught.
Marked for life
More than four years after the crime, the victims are still trying to heal their wounds, fighting shame and betrayal.
“I carry a heavy feeling of guilt […] It was me who had the first contact with Sam, it was me who introduced him to the family, some of my friends,” the eldest child said in a statement read by Judge Vanchestein.
“These actions will affect my life [son] completely,” he added.
For their part, the parents underscored a sense of anger at having trusted the accused.
“We couldn’t protect them like parents should. We felt we had failed at our task.”
recidivism rate
For his part, Beaugé-Malenfant, who now works as a paralegal in a law firm specializing in recovery, is still pursuing a psychosexological trial.
According to one report, the defendant had an above-average recidivism rate.
“He compares himself to an alcoholic who, even if he stops drinking, still runs the risk of developing tools to control himself,” the judge said.
The perpetrator had also asked the court for leniency.
He vowed he had taken matters into his own hands, including following therapies.
-With Michael Nguyen