BANGOR — A former Wayne special education teacher who videotaped himself sexually assaulting young boys, including two with developmental disabilities, was sentenced in federal court Friday to 65 years in prison.
Patrik Ian Arsenault, 28, stood silently as U.S. District Court Judge John A. Woodcock Jr. imposed the sentence. Woodcock said the former teacher used his talents of helping special needs children, and earning the trust of grateful parents, to get the children alone and commit “unspeakable acts.”
Woodcock also sentenced Arsenault to a lifetime of supervised release once his prison term is complete. That release will require a host of conditions, including regular monitoring of his electronic devices.
“Yours has been the worst sexual crime I’ve seen in 11 years on the bench,” Woodcock said. “It was an extraordinary breach of trust. I really don’t know how to speak to you about an unspeakable crime.”
Arsenault in July pleaded guilty to federal charges of transportation, receipt and possession of child pornography and three counts of production of child pornography.
Arsenault, of Norridgewock, faces related state charges as well. He is expected to appear Monday for a hearing on those charges in Kennebec County Superior Court.
Arsenault worked as a special eduction teacher for two years at the Wayne Regional Autism Program in Readfield-based Regional School Unit 38 before he resigned in June 2013. The program was at Wayne Elementary School.
Documents filed in federal and state court indicate the children assaulted were not those in his classes, but family friends. It was revealed in court Friday that one of the children had been under Arsenault’s care while he worked at Woodfords Family Services in Westbrook a few years before the assault.
According to the prosecution’s version of the events, the investigation into Arsenault began when federal Homeland Security personnel were told someone “had uploaded images of child pornography to an image-sharing website located outside the United States.”
That Internet address was traced to Arsenault’s Norridgewock residence and his former employer.
When agents executed a warrant at his home on Aug. 21, 2013, “the defendant stated that he had been trading child pornography via email for approximately a year,” according to the prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew McCormack.
McCormack said Arsenault initially denied sexually abusing children but then admitted to abusing two boys ages 6 and 7, identified in federal court documents as “Male Minors A and B.”
“He stated he had video recorded and photographed some of these encounters in June or July 2013 while he was living in Belgrade,” McCormack wrote. Arsenault also told investigators he sent some of those images and videos via email to people out of state in exchange for similar images from them.
McCormack said investigators examining computers and related material seized from Arsenault found images of Arsenault abusing a third boy.
All the victims are “prepubescent males,” McCormack noted.
That sexual abuse allegedly occurred July 24, 2013, in Norridgewock and images of that, too, were sent out of state, according to McCormack.
In addition to the photos and videos taken by Arsenault, “law enforcement also discovered on the hard drive more than 7,500 images and more than 250 videos depicting children in different sexual poses and children engaged in sexual acts with other children and/or adults.”
On May 28, Woodcock found that Arsenault was competent to proceed, Arsenault’s attorney, Donald Brown, said Arsenault intended to plead guilty rather than go to trial.
In state court, Arsenault faces six counts of unlawful sexual contact; four counts of sexual exploitation of a minor under 12 and three counts of gross sexual assault. All of the charges are listed as Class A offenses, which carry a potential prison term of 30-years each, or Class B, each of which carries a potential 10-year prison term.
Copy the Story LinkComments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
