Canadian Child-molester Ordered Deported

[george]

Canadian child-molester ordered deported

PATONG: -- A court has ordered Canadian teacher Jocelyn Leblanc deported after he confessed to charges of sexually molesting a child under 15 years of age.

The 66-year-old teacher of the English language supposedly confessed to having smothered his penis with honey in order to entice a five-year-old boy to perform oral sex on him last February.

Pol Col Teeraphol Thipjaroen, Superintendent of Kathu Police Station, told the Gazette on June 1 that Leblanc had confessed to sexual molestation charges at Phuket Provincial Court, which sentenced him to two years in prison and then reduced the sentence by half because of his admission of guilt.

A local Thai newspaper reported that the man’s offense came to light when the child, a student of his, was walking in Patong with his mother and, upon seeing a jar of honey, mentioned to his mother that it tasted sweet.

Asking him how he knew this, the mother was appalled when the child told her that Leblanc had been smearing it on his penis and encouraging the boy to perform oral sex on him at the end of their private-tuition language classes in the child’s home.

The Gazette has been unable to confirm independently the details of the abuse or how many times it occurred.

Following a complaint lodged by the boy’s mother and a subsequent police investigation, Leblanc was arrested at his home in Chalong on April 18 and released immediately on 500,000 baht bail.

A source at Phuket Immigration Police told the Gazette that on May 30 Leblanc was transferred to Bangkok, where authorities were to conduct a background check to see whether any similar charges had been filed against him in the past. If none had, he would have been deported immediately, the source said.

It is not known whether the Thai authorities have arranged with the Canadian government to have Leblanc serve out the remainder of his one-year jail sentence in Canada – or, indeed, whether he has already gone back to that country.

An official at the Canadian Embassy in Bangkok told the Gazette that the embassy could not comment on the case as Leblanc is protected by Canada’s strict privacy laws.

--Phuket Gazette 2005-06-07

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