Armand Lacoursiere was sentenced to 15-and-a-half years imprisonment Feb. 19 for sexually abusing seven children beginning in the 1970s.
Justice Sterling Sanderman of Court of Queen’s Bench in Edmonton said the 68-year-old Lawrence Lake man’s actions caused “devastating psychological harm to the truly innocent.”
Lacoursiere is at high risk to re-offend, according to a psychiatric assessment, and although Justice Sanderman designated him a dangerous offender, the judge declined to give him an indefinite sentence.
Should Lacoursiere outlive his prison sentence, he will be put under 10 years of community supervision.
Lacoursiere’s case was first heard in Athabasca Provincial Court after he was detained in early 2012 from his home at Lawrence Lake. At one time, he faced 84 charges, but last July he pled guilty to 16 counts in total under charges of sexual assault, sexual interference, sexually touching a young person while in a position of authority, indecent assault, making child porn and possessing child porn.
Many of the offences occurred at his home, motor home and car north of Athabasca and, in one incident, at a property in Breton, AB.
One complainant was abused over a six-month period while living on Lacoursiere’s property and claimed Lacoursiere used Edmonton Oilers games as bribes.
Another complainant was abused when she was between the ages of nine and 14 and became pregnant with Lacoursiere’s child.
A search of Lacoursiere’s home by RCMP in February 2012 found more than 6,000 images of child pornography. Some of the images had been made into collages.
Lacoursiere was charged with sexual assault in 1989 in Fort McMurray and served 30 days in jail. In 2006, he pled guilty to sexual interference and sexual assault in Athabasca and served three years for each charge concurrently.
At his Feb. 19 sentencing, Lacoursiere was ordered to give a DNA sample, put in the national sex offender database for life, banned from going places where young people are present for life, and handed a 10-year firearms prohibition.
Lacoursiere was given credit for time served and has 13 years left to serve in prison.
