Piano teacher gets prison term for 'depraved' sexual acts against 4-year-old girl
WARNING: The details contained in this story are graphic and disturbing
A Calgary piano teacher has been sentenced to 4½ years in prison after he ordered a four-year-old girl to strip naked, asked her to perform oral sex on him and showed her videos of "girls and boys" having sex.
Darrin Hogue, 35, pleaded guilty to three charges: invitation to sexual touching as well as making and accessing child pornography.
Court of Queen's Bench Justice David Labrenz called the crimes "depraved."
On Thursday, Labrenz read from his 34-page decision, noting the "profound harm" suffered by child victims of sexual violence.
"This is not a victimless crime," said Labrenz of the child pornography offences.
The children are "revictimized in an endless loop" with their images living on the internet indefinitely.
Hogue asked girl to perform oral sex
The details of Hogue's crimes come from an agreed statement of facts. A publication ban protects the identity of his child victim.
On Feb. 18, 2018, after downloading child pornography images and videos, Hogue attended the child's home for a piano lesson.
The two spent time in the basement, where he ordered her to watch pornographic videos, telling her "it would make her smarter."
A video later found on Hogue's phone shows him ordering the girl to undress fully, which she does before he further instructs her to turn around and bend over as he directed the camera on her genitals.
"His focus was disgusting and humiliating as much as it could be described as depraved," wrote Labrenz in his decision.
Then he tells her to touch his erect penis before the video abruptly stops.
1,300 images and videos of child porn on cellphone
The victim told police that Hogue asked her to perform oral sex on him.
The child later told her mother that "girls do that to boys but it doesn't taste good."
Days after the video was recorded on Hogue's cellphone, the girl told her mother about the pornography she had viewed with her piano teacher, prompting the parents to go to police.
When police searched Hogue's cellphone, they discovered 1,300 images and videos of child pornography that had been downloaded over the previous four years.
The images and videos depicted children — from babies to 12-year-olds — involved in nearly every sexual act imaginable.
"Not only did [Hogue] breach the trust of the victim and her family, he also breached societal trust," wrote Labrenz.
"Parents must trust others to help care for, educate, and otherwise develop children into well-adjusted adults. With the breach of this trust comes grave harm to society."
Parents feel guilt, anguish
Labrenz noted the effects Hogue's crimes had on the child's parents.
"The mother described her world as collapsing and wrote of her feelings of self-blame for not being able to protect her daughter," said the judge.
The girl's father wrote about his "feelings of shame, inadequacy, guilt, incompetence, anguish, paranoia and depression."
"[He] laments the loss of [her] innocence."
Hogue had previously been investigated for similar crimes against a six-year-old piano student but charges were ultimately not laid in that case.
Earlier this week, prosecutor Aurelie Beland argued Hogue should be sentenced to five years behind bars while defence lawyer Jeinis Patel proposed a two- to three-year prison term.
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