In 2022, a person searching for pedophiles on the internet pretended to offer his 10-year-old niece to Gabriel Corbeil-Theriault for $100.
The mother of a man working as a high school janitor when Montreal police discovered more than 100,000 images of child pornography in his possession asked the judge about to sentence him to consider the autistic man’s difficult upbringing.
Natasha Corbeil broke down and wept while she testified Thursday on behalf of her 29-year-old son Gabriel Corbeil-Thériault. She talked at length about how her son always played alone while at daycare and had to do kindergarten twice before he was sent to a specialized school. She said he has since been diagnosed as being autistic.
Corbeil also said her son grew up with no friends and didn’t like going to birthday parties when he was a boy.
“Group activities (at a specialized primary school) were always difficult,” she added. “The high school he went to (in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve) was rough. He was assaulted. There was intimidation in the classrooms. That’s Hochelaga.
“I just want to say, throughout all his life we tried to find help (for him),” the mother said as she concluded her testimony. “We never got it.”
Marc Ravard, a sexologist who also testified for the defence on Thursday, said Corbeil-Thériault told him he was sexually abused by a relative as a minor. Ravard testified that, during their first meeting, Corbeil-Theriault told him he assumed children could consent to having sex because of the abuse he experienced.
“Now he understands the harm of the acts” depicted in child pornography, Ravard said. “He doesn’t seem to want to go back to the internet.
“He is easily manipulated and very influenceable.”
Defence lawyer Alexander Grey argued before Quebec Court Judge Pierre Dupras that his client merits a sentence of two years less a day that can be served in the community.
Corbeil-Thériault was working at a high school near the Olympic Stadium when a person searching for pedophiles on the internet met him on a website where child pornography was accessible. The person pretended to have a 10-year-old niece that Corbeil-Thériault could “meet” for $100. Corbeil-Thériault thought he had set up a meeting with the girl in the parking lot of the school where he was working. Instead, the person pretending to offer up his niece informed the Montreal police and, following an investigation, they found he was in possession of child pornography.
He was arrested in March 2022. On Jan. 11 this year, Corbeil-Thériault pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography, invitation to sexual touching and participating in the sexual immorality of a child.
In his testimony Thursday, Corbeil-Thériault admitted that, long before his arrest, he received three warnings, between 2017 and 2019, from Montreal police investigators, who said they suspected he was viewing child pornography on the internet.
“You did nothing about those warnings? You didn’t seek help,” prosecutor Charles Doucet asked at one point.
“No. It was because (one of the investigators) made a joke about it. So I didn’t take it seriously,” Corbeil-Thériault said.
The judge continued hearing sentence arguments Thursday afternoon.