5 teens face child porn charges after photos shared at Quebec City private school

Charges will be brought against five of seven students at a Quebec City private school who are alleged to have exchanged explicit photos of three young girls, the province’s office of criminal prosecutions (DPCP) announced on Friday.

The DPCP made the decision after assessing evidence compiled by Quebec City police.

The five teens, all students at the Séminaire des Pères Maristes, will face charges of luring, extortion, possession and distribution of child pornography and making public private images without consent. One of the accused will also face a charge of sexual assault.

The five are to appear in youth court over the next few weeks. In the meantime, they are not allowed to contact any of the plaintiffs.

Two other students are to receive non-court ordered sanctions aimed at reducing the number of young people in the justice system by referring them to community authorities.

DPCP spokesperson Jean Pascal Boucher said the school has been informed of the decision. The Séminaire des Pères Maristes said in a release it would study the office’s decision.

Police were alerted in mid-April by authorities at the Seminaire des Peres Maristes.

In August, after the school decided to bar students targeted by the investigation, Quebec Superior Court ordered the private college to reinstate three of them. Judge Daniel Dumais ruled that the private college had harmed the trio by removing them from a familiar academic environment.

The school’s administration said it had no choice but to comply with the court order, but the decision was met with a protest at the school on Tuesday by a group called Regroupement des groupes de femmes de la région Capitale-Nationale.