A Montreal man has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for bringing an eight-year-old girl from Africa to Canada and sexually exploiting her over a three-year period.
The sentence was handed down Wednesday by Superior Court Justice Pierre Labelle at the Montreal courthouse.
Court documents state Sylvain Villemaire, a former school counsellor, paid the girl’s mother and claimed he would provide her with a good education in Canada. The girl’s country of origin cannot be named because of a court order protecting her identity.
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Documents state Villemaire, 60, kept the girl as a prisoner until she was 11, sexually exploiting her multiple times a week, at times with another person.
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He pleaded guilty to sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching, possession of child pornography and accessing child pornography, in September 2020. He was found guilty of trafficking a minor and distribution of child pornography on Feb. 12, 2021.
Prosecutor Amelie Rivard has filed a request to have Villemaire declared a dangerous offender. That request will be heard by the court Oct. 12.
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