AUGUSTA — Six days after a federal judge sentenced him to 65 years in prison, former special education teacher and convicted child pornographer Patrik Ian Arsenault was sentenced Thursday to a 50-year prison term for sexually assaulting three young boys.
Arsenault, 28, of Norridgewock and formerly of Jefferson, pleaded guilty Thursday in Kennebec County Superior Court to 10 charges, including sending images of the assaults to others over the Internet. The prison term will run concurrent with his federal sentence.
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The judge noted that the sentences will keep Arsenault in prison until he is about 88 years old and will be followed by federal supervised release for the rest of his life.
The mother of two of the three boys named as victims in the indictment said in court Thursday that she had mixed feelings.
“No one truly understands the pain that he has caused more than I do, but I find myself battling with what’s put out there in media that he did this horrible, terrible thing,” she told Justice Robert Mullen. “I know he is capable of so many amazing things.”
She said she had come to the realization that she could hate his actions yet still love him. “If anybody has the willpower to overcome something so severe, it’s him,” she said.
The 5-foot-8, 155-pound Arsenault was brought into court in handcuffs and shackles. He spoke briefly with Walter McKee, the attorney representing him on the state charges, before Kennebec County sheriff’s deputies directed him to take a seat at a wooden table. There he kept his head lowered for much of the time. He wore a drab blue jail uniform and bright orange sneakers.
In response to inquiries by Mullen, Arsenault responded, “Guilty, your honor” to 10 separate offenses. Arsenault also said he understood the rights he was giving up by pleading guilty and forgoing a trial.
Prosecutor Maeghan Maloney, district attorney for Kennebec and Somerset counties, told the judge that Arsenault’s roommate, the parents of the boys who were victims, and investigators would testify and that images and videos of the assaults – taken by Arsenault – would be presented as evidence if a trial were held.
Mullen said if a federal 65-year sentence had not already been imposed, he would not consider the 50-year state term because it was not the maximum available. He said he agreed with the federal judge’s assessment of the crimes as heinous.
“It’s repugnant. It’s disgusting to even think about,” Mullen said. “I don’t understand how this happened.”
Mullen said he accepted the sentence recommended by Maloney and McKee because it spared the victims a trial. He said he doesn’t know how justice could ever be done.
“I cannot imagine being the victim or the victim’s family who are going to be living with this probably for the rest of their lives,” he said.
Arsenault declined to speak when the judge asked if he wanted to say anything to the victims Thursday.
Five investigators with the Maine State Police, including officers with the Computer Crimes Unit who helped investigate the case, watched the sentencing hearing from the rear of the courtroom.
Arsenault, who has a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in education, taught 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.
He then was hired in Farmington as a classroom teacher to work with autistic children, but was arrested in August 2013 and did not teach there.
Documents filed in federal and state court indicate the children he assaulted were family friends, not children in his classes.
On Jan. 23, Arsenault was sentenced to 780 months in federal prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release – the sentence requested by the government – and the federal judge ordered the forfeiture of all the electronic equipment, including computers, phones, cameras and memory cards used by Arsenault in the creation or promotion of the child pornography.
At that sentencing hearing, U.S. District Court Judge John A.Woodcock Jr. read aloud portions of the “graphic and disgusting” emails exchanged with one of Arsenault’s email trading partners in Georgia. In them, Arsenault relives the sexual assaults and bemoans the fact that the cough syrup he gave the boys to make them more compliant did not work quickly enough.
In a sentencing memo, the federal prosecutor said Arsenault admitted sexually abusing two young boys who have little or no verbal skills and recording those assaults in videos and photographs. Several of the offenses occurred in June and July 2013 while Arsenault was caring for the children overnight in Belgrade.
Arsenault told an email trading partner that he had given both boys melatonin and the older boy Dimetapp to put them to sleep so he could abuse them, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew McCormack.
At the federal court sentencing, it was revealed that one of the victims had been under Arsenault’s care while he worked at Woodfords Family Services in Waterville a few years before the assault. Arsenault fostered a relationship with the parents during his time at Woodfords, which McCormack said is why they allowed Arsenault to be alone with the child and a sibling.
Arsenault also sexually abused a third boy in Norridgewock during an overnight visit in July 2013. He traded some of those images via email, according to McCormack.
Along with images of the local children produced by Arsenault, investigators found “more than 7,500 images and more than 250 videos depicting prepubescent male children in different sexual poses and children engaged in sexual acts with other children and/or adults,” McCormack wrote.
McCormack described Arsenault’s history, saying he was sexually abused as a child and has a history of alcohol and drug abuse.
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