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Former Saanich nanny pleaded guilty to sexual offences

Nanny guilty of sex crimes

WARNING: This story has details about sex crimes.

A former Saanich nanny pleaded guilty Friday to a number of sexual offences, including making child pornography with three young children.

Johnathon Lee Robichaud, 32, stood before B.C. Supreme Court Justice Catherine Murray and admitted his guilt as each of the eight charges was read aloud.

The charges include sexual interference, sexual touching, making sexually explicit material available to young people, accessing and possessing child pornography and three counts of making child pornography. The identity of the children is protected by a publication ban.

Crown prosecutor Paul Pearson said he will seek “years in jail” for Robichaud and an order prohibiting him from working with or having contact with children.

He asked Murray to order a pre-sentence report that includes a psychiatric component to assist in the crafting of a sentence.

“What would be most interesting is an assessment of Mr. Robichaud’s risk as well as facts that would reduce that risk in the future,” Pearson said.

Defence lawyer Don McKay asked that the reports address underlying psychological issues.

“He’s extremely remorseful and he’s looking to try and understand why it happened so he can prevent it from happening again,” McKay said.

The lawyers hope to set a date for sentencing on Sept. 23.

Pearson told the court that over an eight-month period in 2017 and 2018, Robichaud touched the first child’s penis on several occasions. Robichaud also asked the boy to touch his penis many times in that same period.

“The child said that occurred as many as two to three times per week,” said the prosecutor.

Robichaud also showed the child a sexually explicit video of him masturbating, Pearson said. He also allowed a second child to touch his penis.

At the time of Robichaud’s arrest in September 2018, police found 12,000 images of child pornography on his phone. Police also found 100 images of child pornography on a hard drive.

On 20 days in 2017 and 2018, Robichaud created child porn images involving the three children.



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