Man avoids prison for therapy in child porn case

The prison sentence for a man who has admitted to accessing and possessing child pornography has been postponed so that the man can undertake therapy to treat his problem.

Alexandre Bernier admitted to the facts associated with the sexually explicit images of minors found on his cell phone between March 1 and 18, 2016, before Quebec Court Judge Conrad Chapdelaine at the Sherbrooke Courthouse, but the judge accepted the request of legal aid defense counsel Jessyca Duval to postpone sentencing until November to allow Bernier to follow a pilot program designed to deal with his problem.

Bernier began this therapy program targeting consumers of child pornography at the beginning of the month.

According to Duval, the 35-week pilot project given by CIVAS-ESTRIE (Center for Intervention in Violence and Sexual Assault in the Eastern Townships) is unique in Quebec. “At the moment, we have a sufficient number of people convicted of this kind of offense in our services to offer this program, which is a pilot project stemming from scientific research in this field,” a letter from CIVAS-ESTRIE filed in court states. The project targets “the special needs of child pornographers” and CIVAS-ESTRIE explains that it does not know if it will be given again.

When images of child pornography were found in his possession in March 2016, Bernier was already facing similar charges in Saint-hyacinthe. The 43-yearold was sentenced to detention in this case from 2015, which he settled in 2016.

Therapeutic follow-up by CIVAS-ESTRIE was imposed on him as a probationary condition in the original case, but in spite of this, Bernier should not be able to avoid another prison sentence, argued Crown prosecutor Laila Belgharras.