BANGOR — A former Wayne special education teacher who videotaped himself sexually assaulting young boys, two of whom have developmental disabilities, was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court to 65 years in prison.

Patrik Ian Arsenault, 28, stood silently as Judge John Woodcock imposed the sentence. Woodcock said the former teacher used his talents of helping special needs children, and earning the trust of 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, also has been charged by the state with 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.

Advertisement

He is expected to appear Monday for a hearing on those charges in Kennebec County Superior Court.

Arsenault was 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 Waterville a few years before the assault. Arsenault fostered a relationship with the parents during his time at Woodfords, which U.S. Attorney Andrew McCormack said is why they allowed Arsenault to be alone with the child and a sibling.

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.

Advertisement

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 says 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.

Advertisement

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.”

Woodcock read aloud portions of the “graphic and disgusting” emails exchanged with one of Arsenault’s 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.

Two of the victims had developmental disabilities, including autism, which not only made them uncomfortable with intimacy, but one of the victims was non-verbal, which made him unable to speak about what happened. Arsenault complained that one of the victims started to squirm and then repeatedly pleaded, “All done?”

“These were not real human beings to him,” Woodcock said. “They were just bodies.”

Arsenault in the emails also encourages his trading partner, who was later sentenced to 17 years in prison for receiving the images, to come to Maine to take part in a future assault.

In one email read aloud by Woodcock, Arsenault wrote of one of his victims that “it would have been better if he was more sedated.”

Advertisement

“You really should come and join us next time :),” another read. “We really could have a lot of fun if you come up here. Haha”

Woodcock said the emails were breathtaking for their coldness and callousness.

“The sexual abuse of these children is some kind of joke,” he said.

Arsenault, who read from a prepared statement, said he doesn’t understand who he was when he wrote the emails.

“When I look at the emails I sent it’s like they were written by another person,” he said.

Arsenault, dressed in a gray prison uniform, hair neatly trimmed, wept openly as parents of the three assault victims explained their anguish to Woodcock. They spoke of trusting Arsenault because of his skill in dealing with, and apparent caring for, their children. The mother of the Norridgewock victim said she trusted Arsenault until detectives showed her the pictures Arsenault had taken of her son. She then recalled her son bleeding while taking a bath after being with Arsenault.

Advertisement

“I know in my heart Ian raped my son,” she said.

Her son now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and acts out in an inappropriate sexual manner.

“Time will heal, but the pictures will never be deleted off the Internet,” she said. “Ian stole my son’s innocence and that will never heal or be forgiven.”

The mother of the two boys victimized in the Belgrade assault said people used to tell her how lucky she was to know Arsenault. She still struggles to reconcile the man she thought loved her son and her family with the one who devastated that family.

“A part of me will always love him,” she said. “He’s drowning in this incurable disease of pedophilia.”

Woodcock said the parents of children with special needs constantly worry about who will care for their children. Arsenault used that fear to his advantage, making the parents believe he was “sent from heaven.” Now the parents have the added guilt of feeling they failed to protect their children, Woodcock said.

Advertisement

“There was simply no reason to think this person would visit a personal version of hell on these children,” Woodcock said.

McCormack asked for a 68-year sentence. Sentencing guidelines allowed a potential life sentence. Arsenault’s attorney, Donald Brown, said there was no legal basis to challenge the sentencing guidelines but asked for leniency in light of Arsenault’s work of helping children.

Arsenault, who stood in front of several family members who gathered for the sentencing, said he hoped to help prisoners who have been convicted of sex crimes and asked the court to give him enough life after prison to help the community he had hurt.

“I know I could say this for eternity and it would never be said enough, but I’m sorry,” Arsenault said. “I hope someday I can be forgiven.”

Craig Crosby — 621-5642

ccrosby@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @CraigCrosby4


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.