Pedophile serving indefinite sentence is again denied parole

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A pedophile who once kidnapped a nine-year-old girl from her family home to sexually assault her has again been denied parole while he serves an indefinite sentence he received four years ago after he tried to pay money for sex. with a minor while he was in a rehabilitation center in Laval.

In a decision made earlier this week by Canada’s Appeals Division Parole Board, Michel Fradette, 45, was again denied day parole. The appeals division found no flaw in the parole board’s November decision denying him release. It determined that Fradette still represents a risk society and that he spends more time focused on appealing the indefinite sentence he received at the Laval court, on August 8, 2020, than he does working to rehabilitate himself.

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He was declared a dangerous offender on that date and since then, Fradette appeared frequently before the Quebec Court of Appeal last year in an attempt to remove the designation. The two recent parole decisions made in his case describe how he has distanced himself from his case management team because he claims he has been denied access to documents he needs for his appeal.

In 2007, Fradette was sentenced to 10 years in prison for having kidnapped and sexually assaulted a nine-year-old girl in the Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean region. Following her arrest in that case, five other girls came forward and reported being sexually abused by Fradette between 1997 and 2002. His 10-year sentence included convictions for several crimes related to the other five victims.

He was also declared a long-term offender when he was sentenced in 2007, which meant the Parole Board of Canada was able to impose conditions of supervision on Fradette for 10 years after his sentence expired. The long-term offender portion of his sentence began in August 2017 and one of the conditions imposed on Fradette was that he reside in a halfway house.

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In March 2019, he was caught in a sting operation in which Laval police posed as pimps and posted online ads offering sex with minors. Using a cell phone he was not supposed to have, Fradette texted a phone number in the ad and wrote: “If you have one that is very young $$$. Give me a sign -12”, referring to a girl under 12 years old.

Laval police kept Fradette on the hook until he reached an agreement to pay $550 for having sex with a minor. When he was arrested, it was found that on his mobile phone there were 8,886 images and 17 videos that constituted child pornography.

On July 16, 2019, he pleaded guilty to attempting to obtain sexual services from a minor and was subsequently declared a dangerous offender, a designation that came with an indeterminate sentence.

On Tuesday, the parole board’s appeals division supported the earlier decision to deny him release.

“You have a low potential for social reintegration and you are not committed to your release plan. At this point in your sentence, you are very immersed in judicial proceedings to the detriment of the work you should be doing of reflection, questioning and introspection on your criminal dynamics, and on your needs for help and intervention. It does not even agree with the level of risk he presents, which limits any in-depth work,” the parole board wrote in November.

“In this context, the board has not observed any significant improvement that would justify a return to society, even if it were within the framework of an interim period in a very controlled program. To date and given the lack of progress, the board can only conclude that you have no grounds for release.”

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