Former Olympic hopeful Thierry Pellerin has been sentenced to five years in prison for luring boys under his responsibility into the gymnastics club where he coached and filming them in the changing room toilets.
Judge Alain Morand announced his decision Friday morning at the Quebec City Courthouse. Dressed in a blue jacket and motionless as he entered the room, Pellerin was quickly handcuffed by the special police officers at the judge’s request.
“From now on you are no longer free,” the district judge told the 25-year-old, who did not react when the verdict was pronounced.
Pellerin pleaded guilty to soliciting, inciting sexual touching, making available sexual material and producing child pornography.
“Above average” risk of recurrence
In justifying his decision, Alain Morand referred in particular to “the manipulation, willfulness, planning and organization” related to the crimes, as well as the number of victims and their ages. But he also took into account the goal of rehabilitating criminals.
“The sentence to be imposed must aim to condemn the accused’s unlawful conduct and the harm inflicted on vulnerable young victims, without completely overshadowing social reintegration,” he wrote in his decision, adding that it “necessarily” was that Pellerin benefited from a therapeutic follow-up for “deviant sexual interests”.
A sexological report requested on the verge of the verdict shows that Thierry Pellerin has an “above-average” risk of recidivism. The diagnostic hypotheses suggest a possible “primary homosexual pedophilia disorder” or an interest in young preadolescent boys.
between the two proposals
So Judge Morand will have cut the pear in two between the prosecution’s and the defense’s proposals.
Crown prosecutor Me Geneviève Corriveau called for a heavy prison sentence of up to 8 years. In support of her proposal, the lawyer had pointed out in particular that the consequences for the gymnast’s victims were significant.
Photo archive Martin Alari
Thierry Pellerin at the 2017 World Gymnastics Championships in Montreal.
“Distrust, betrayal, disappointment, difficulty building trusting relationships. It is still having a significant impact on these young people,” she explained during observations on the verdict last December.
For his part, defense lawyer Mathieu Giroux considered a two-year prison sentence justified in view of the rehabilitation of a young client who had embarked on a therapeutic journey.
“We can’t send him to jail and throw away the key,” the lawyer said.
Videos shot on the toilet
It was parents who sounded the alarm in the summer of 2020 after spotting sexual messaging between their 11- and 12-year-old sons and their coach Thierry Pellerin. Messages quickly turned to sex, specifically addressing the length of children’s penises.
At the time of his arrest, police confiscated the young man’s computer equipment and found sexual images of eight boys aged 6 to 12.
The videos, placed in a file titled “Gym,” included close-ups of the boys’ penises as they urinated in the restrooms at the gym club where they trained.
Pellerin quickly pleaded guilty to all charges against him.