MONTREAL - A former teacher from a prestigious Montreal private school will serve at least 24 years behind bars in Virginia after being sentenced on more sex-related charges involving children.

Richard Doucet was sentenced in a Fredericksburg courtroom Friday to spend 14 years and seven months in jail.

The 37-year-old pleaded guilty in the spring to 25 counts of possession of child pornography.

Fredericksburg prosecutor LaBravia Jenkins said the jail term runs consecutively with the 14-year sentence Doucet received a few weeks ago for related crimes in the neighbouring Stafford County district.

Jenkins said Judge Gordon Willis's ruling followed the state's strict sentencing guidelines.

"I think that the sentence was fair," she said in a phone interview. "It was right on target."

While Doucet's active jail time now totals 28 years and seven months, Jenkins said he could be released early for good behaviour after serving 85 per cent of the combined sentence.

But the legal battle isn't over yet for the former elementary-level English and math teacher, who faces more related charges next month before a third Virginia court in Prince William County.

Jenkins said Doucet is expected to plead guilty in that case in exchange for a sentence of suspended prison time.

"The 28 years, seven months should probably be the extent of his active period of incarceration," she said.

The married native of Bathurst, N.B., taught at the all-boys Selwyn House school from 1999 until his arrest in May 2008.

Virginia police arrested Doucet at a Fredericksburg hotel, where he had planned to meet a teenager.

A police officer posing online as a 13-year-old boy testified he had sexually explicit web conversations with Doucet over several months leading up to the arrest.

Police allege Doucet emailed the detective photos of nude boys.

When he was arrested, officers found thousands of photos of naked children on a compact disc and a Selwyn House-issued laptop.

The Free Lance-Star, a Fredericksburg newspaper, reported Friday that defence attorney Peter Greenspun argued that Doucet's 14-year sentence from Stafford County was enough.

"He's a decent man," said Greenspun, who defended John Allen Muhammad, the man convicted in the 2002 sniper attacks near Washington, D.C.

"But decent people do indecent things sometimes."

Willis did not agree.

"It is beyond this court's comprehension how someone with Mr. Doucet's background allowed himself to be in this situation," the judge said.

A court clerk incorrectly indicated earlier Doucet would not be eligible for early release from Friday's sentence.