The Office of the Public Prosecutor (OPP) requested a five-year prison sentence on Wednesday at the Charleroi Correctional Court for a 41-year-old former dance teacher accused of voyeurism and sexual molestation of five pupils.
However, the OPP did not oppose a suspension of the sentence with probation.
The accused, for his part, admitted to all the charges, but blamed alcohol.
Before filing a complaint on 3 November 2019, one of the victims noticed the presence of a mobile phone in the bathroom of the defendant’s home, where rehearsals were being held. The room was used by the students to change their clothes.
Interviewed on the day after the discovery, the dance teacher admitted that he had filmed three of the victims without their knowledge.
The five victims, some of them teenagers and the others adults, also charged that they he had touched them. The defendant claimed that he did so because he had consumed alcohol.
The defence pleaded for a suspension of the sentence with probation, which the prosecution did not oppose.
“He has revealed more information than was originally in the police file," the public prosecutor said. "He is someone who is at least taking the step of acknowledging his serious errors," he added, "and today I hear that he has completely stopped drinking alcohol.”
Judgement will be handed down on Wednesday 8 November.
