Local actor gets 15 months for child porn possession
A Montreal actor whose career includes a few roles in Hollywood productions was sentenced to a 15-month prison term on Tuesday for having amassed a large collection of child pornography.
The sentence Paul Cagelet, 52, received at the Montreal courthouse was part of a common suggestion presented to Quebec Court Judge Julie Riendeau.
On Jan. 12, Cagelet pleaded guilty to being in possession of child pornography between July 16, 2015, and Nov. 10, 2016, and to having accessed it as well. When he entered the guilty pleas, a stay of proceedings was placed on a third charge, that he distributed child porn. The maximum sentence under both charges is a 10-year prison term and both require that the offender serve a mandatory minimum prison term of 12 months.
Prosecutor Anne Gauvin told Riendeau that when the case against Cagelet began in 2016, the Crown envisaged a longer prison term because of the amount of porn the actor collected during a period of 14 months. She noted that since then Cagelet has undergone therapy to treat his addiction to pornography and has plans to continue it after he is released. Continuing the therapy is one of the conditions set out in the three years of probation that will follow the prison term. A report prepared for the court by a psycho-sexual therapist assessed Cagelet as a low risk of reoffending because he has already expressed remorse and shame for his crimes.
“(The sentence) is not excessively long, but in this case the minimum would not be appropriate,” Gauvin said in reference to how police found more than 38,000 photographs and 290 video files (including many duplicates), depicting children between the ages of seven and 12 involved in explicit sex acts, on his computer. “He admits that the (children in the images he downloaded) are victims.”
Cagelet admitted to the therapist that he was consuming adult pornography for six hours a day and would occasionally come across child porn on the internet by accident. He said he gradually became more excited by child porn as his addiction continued.
“There is not an hour that goes by where I don’t sincerely regret my actions,” Cagelet said before Riendeau agreed with the common suggestion.
“I firmly believe we will never see Mr. Cagelet before the courts again,” defence lawyer Michael Morena told Riendeau, adding that Cagelet has lost many of his friends since he was charged and that his career as an actor is over.
Before his arrest, Cagelet was working in a home-improvement supply store in the Sud- Ouest borough. It was a job that involved serving the public and, Morena said, Cagelet lost that employment after his arrest by the Montreal police in November 2016 was reported on by several media outlets.
Cagelet is perhaps best known in Quebec for his roles in the RadioCanada television series Cormoran, which originally aired during the 1990s, and the 1993 film Matusalem. He also had a minor role in the children’s television series Are You Afraid of the Dark? His Hollywood film credits include an appearance in The Greatest Game Ever Played, which was directed by the late actor Bill Paxton. According to Wikipedia, Cagelet stands 1.32 metres tall, so his options for roles were limited.
His lawyer, Morena, later told reporters that he has been involved in discussions with authorities to make sure special accommodations will be made to address Cagelet’s height while he serves his time in a provincial detention centre.
“(Serving the sentence) will be harder on him than it would be for others. For example, he won’t be able to participate in the regular activities at a detention centre,” Morena said.