This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.
From Laval, Canada, foster parents Jacques Laporte,75, and Micheline Laporte Charland,71, pleaded “guilty to abusing and torturing their foster children.
Five survivors have now come forward, but there may be more.
Jacques Laporte, now 75 and his wife Micheline Laporte Charland, 71, pleaded guilty Wednesday to a total of 22 charges, many of them serious, sexually explicit charges.
One of the survivors is Stephane Brabant, now 39 and a father. When he was a boy, he said he suffered greatly at the hands of his foster parents.
From the ages of 6 to 10, Brabant said his foster father regularly beat him with a belt he called ‘Big Bad John,’ sometimes drawing blood.
“I was beaten with a belt, forced on my knees and flogged until I bled for four years,” he said. “If I made my bed wrong, didn’t sweep properly, got bad marks at school, anything.”
The abuse took place in the early 80’s in a home in Laval’s St. Francois district.
Two sisters, now in their 50’s, did not appear in court, but also accused Laporte and his wife of sexually and physically assaulting them on a weekly basis during the 60’s and 70’s. There were 16 different charges relating to the sisters. They say the abuse began in Montreal when they were nine and six, then continued in Laval and lasted over a decade.
Five years ago, Laporte was also found guilty of drugging and sexually and physically abusing two brothers in their care. He served 30 months in jail.
Because the couple served as foster parents to many children, Laval police suspected there might be other victims; they were correct.
Brabant said he came forward after hearing about the other boys, who have now also laid charges against the wife.
The couple both pleaded guilty to all new charges against them.
Noticeably disturbed by the facts of the case, Judge Gilles Garneau said he could not allow the elderly couple to remain free pending their sentencing, because it would undermine public confidence in the courts.
The Laportes now live in Chertsey. They were handcuffed and placed into detention until their sentencing arguments May 6.
Both in their 70s, there is a strong possibility they will spend much of the remainder of their lives in jail.”
Elderly couple pleads guilty to 22 counts of abuse against foster children [CTV News 3/17/16]
REFORM Puzzle Piece
Update:”A Laval couple has been sentenced to ten and eight years in prison for sexually and physically abusing foster children.
Jacques Laporte and Micheline Charland-Laporte were also confronted with new charges on Thursday when they appeared in court, and they pleaded guilty to physically and sexually abusing a man, now in his forties, who was their foster child in the 1970s.
The Laportes admitted earlier this year to 22 separate charges of abuse against five children.
The victims cannot be identified because they were all minors, some as young as six years old, when the crimes began.
One victim said the Laportes repeatedly flogged him with a belt until he bled as punishment for not making his bed properly or for not sweeping the floor.
Two sisters said they were sexually assaulted from the time they were six and nine years old, with the abuse continuing for a decade.
“I was just nine when I lost my childhood,” said one victim. “I was living under constant fear whenever I was in bed or asleep. I lost my virginity at an age when girls my age still played with dolls.”
Before handing down their sentences, the judge said the court must take exception to the couple continually denying what had taken place despite overwhelming evidence.
“You were supposed to protect these children,” said the judge. “Instead, you used them for sex and destroyed them in the process.”
To date at least six victims have come forward to accuse the foster parents of abusing them in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s.
This is the second conviction for Jacques Laporte, now 75 years old. In 2012 he was sentenced to 42 months in jail for abusing other foster children in his care.
Meanwhile Micheline Charland-Laporte, 71, was asked to explain some of the statements she had made while in custody.
Charland-Laporte said she had been harassed by other inmates from the moment she was placed in detention in March.
Subject to threats, Charland-Laporte told the other prisoners that even though she had pleaded guilty she had not committed the crimes.
In court on Thursday she told the judge she lied in order to minimize the threat of being hurt.
Since she’s been in custody Charland-Laporte has been the subject of extra prison security in order to protect her from other inmates. ”
Foster parents sentenced for sexually abusing children [CTV 5/26/16 ]
Heart breaking but not as heart breaking as knowing this is still happening today in the child welfare agencies across the country. As Kathleen Wynne, Premier of Ontario put it: “If we could fix what is ailing the child protection system, child welfare system in this province, by starting from scratch and blowing up what exists – I would be willing to do that, because one child’s life would be worth changing the administrative structures.”
I think blowing upt the current system is a good start.