Robert Charpentier, 77, was convicted of sexually abusing two students decades ago.
A 77-year-old retired teacher from the West Island was sentenced Thursday at the Montreal courthouse to a two-year prison term for sexually abusing two of his students decades ago.
Robert Charpentier, a resident of Dollard-des-Ormeaux, was taken into custody to begin serving time in a federal penitentiary immediately after Quebec Court Judge Guylaine Rivest delivered her decision. The prison term will be followed by three years of probation.
The judge also ordered that Charpentier turn over a sample of his DNA and that he be placed on Canada’s sex-offender registry for 10 years.
The judge said she hoped her decision will represent a start in the healing process for the two victims, who are now men.
“A lot of emotions,” said one of the victims to reporters outside the courtroom when he was asked for a reaction to the sentence. “Happy is not really a word to describe it. I’m just glad that it’s over. I think it would have been more difficult to understand if it had been house arrest. That would have been more difficult to process.”
The man also said he wished that other victims would have come forward after he did.
“I think this is really important. If somebody does come forward, they really have to want to do it for themselves. You can’t do it for someone else because it’s a difficult process. You have to be the one to have to want to do it. It has to be meaningful for you,” he said.
During the trial, Rivest heard evidence Charpentier abused the first boy after inviting him and another boy to his home for a sleepover. The boys dined with Charpentier’s family before their teacher invited them to his basement to play Truth or Dare.
“(Charpentier) told them, ‘What happens in the basement stays in the basement’,” the judge said when she delivered her decision to convict Charpentier near the end of 2022.
Charpentier began the abuse after he asked the victim questions about masturbation.
Charpentier abused the second victim several years later, between 1997 and 1998. In that case, he was the boy’s English teacher and he invited the student to take walks around the school at lunchtime. The abuse began during one of those walks.