A judge is faced with a sentencing quandary on a man who has pleaded guilty to manslaughter for killing a neighbour after finding child pornography on his computer.
Patrick Belanger was an alcoholic who lived in a Decarie Blvd. apartment building in July 2009 when the 26-year-old borrowed his neighbour's computer.
On it he discovered a library of child pornography.
Furious, a drunken Belanger became enraged and beat his neighbour to death.
The victim was 63 year-old Leonard Wells, an Ontario man with many prior convictions for pedophilia.
Belanger was charged with first degree murder.
But in spite of the seriousness of the crime, the prosecution agreed to reduce the charge to manslaughter.
Belanger pleaded guilty in January, and at his sentencing hearing Monday family and friends came to court to try to convince the judge that he's a completely changed man.
While he was out on bail, Belanger says he went to rehab and Alcoholics Anonymous. His parents told the court they're supporting him in his therapy. Friends and fellow recovering addicts testified that his recovery is an inspiration for all and that sending him to jail would be counterproductive.
The defence went so far as to suggest that witnessing child-porn was a form of provocation which triggered his violence, urging the court to give him a maximum of three years in jail.
"We're drawing a line between rehabilitation and punishment," said Clément Proulx of the Freedom House Rehab Centre. "They don't want the punishment, they see the rehabilitation is already there."
Prosecutor Thierry Nadon argued that Belanger took the law into his own hands when he had the choice to wait for police and the courts to deal with Wells, suggesting a minimum of six years in jail for Belanger.
The judge now has to decide if Belanger's shot at redemption is enough to earn the court's leniency.
