Emmanuel Christian School

By Chelsey St-Pierre
The Suburban

Robert Charpentier was sentenced last Thursday to a two-year prison term for sexually abusing two students in the ‘80s and ‘90s.

The 77-year old former West Island teacher at Emmanuel Christian School in Dollard-des-Ormeaux was convicted in December 2022. The victims were so traumatized by the events that it took them nearly three decades to draw up the courage to come forward.

The victims expressed themselves during their victim impact statement explaining how the abuse had affected them throughout their lives, living with a sense of shame and betrayal. One of the victims stated that the trauma led him to drug and alcohol abuse.

Quebec Court Justice Guylaine Rivest stated in the sentencing the importance of an incarceration period for the crime despite that the accused was a first-time offender. The defence was seeking a lighter sentence of time to be served in the community, while the Crown was seeking a 24 to 30-month prison term.

“The need for denunciation and deterrence is so urgent that those objectives can be achieved only by incarceration. This prioritization must be even more rigorously applied when the offences were committed over an extended period and in a context of trust or authority,” the Judge wrote.

Following his prison sentence, Charpentier will be placed on probation for three years. He must provide a sample of his DNA and will be logged on the registry of sex offenders for a period of 10 years. n