An unscrupulous Montrealer who ‘sextorted’ a 12-year-old American student blames drugs and alcohol, while swearing that deep down he’s not ‘that kind of person’.
“In my sober state of mind, thinking about it disgusts me, it makes me sick to tell myself that I was able to do that”, testified Mitchel Sendel, this Tuesday at the Montreal courthouse, hoping for clemency court and get away with two years less a day in prison, while the Crown is asking for up to 5 years in prison. Sendel, a 33-year-old Montrealer who worked in a hair salon in Saint-Léonard, but who has since moved to Ontario, had committed his crime in 2019, after targeting a 12-year-old child who was attending school in Ohio. He had communicated with her via Facebook, Instagram and Omegle.
Threat
But even though she had mentioned her age, Sendel managed to get a nude video of her. And that’s where the threats started.
“He wanted other photos and videos of the same kind. She wanted to die, she begged him to stop, but he kept threatening her asking for more,” reads the summary of facts filed as he pleaded guilty to luring, possessing and producing pornography. juvenile.
In total, he accumulated 66 images of the child, threatening to expose him “on social networks, porn sites, and to send everything to his friends and those who follow him on Instagram”.
“On multiple occasions, he used these ultimatums,” the summary of the facts indicates while mentioning that he had communicated with a friend of the victim aged 11 years.
He was arrested following a school complaint and a police investigation that led to his location in Montreal. A search uncovered 319 files of child pornography. Several videos show the accused chatting by webcam with minors, sometimes asking them to perform sexual acts.
Photo Michael Nguyen
Mitchel Sendel (in a gray suit) during his visit to the Montreal courthouse. He is accompanied by a relative.
“I don’t care about them”
He used the pseudonym “bvbptv420” on the internet and used a profile picture taken from the Muppet Show, a popular TV series featuring puppets.
“On Omegle, the age of the girls doesn’t matter, I don’t care about them, I only think about me,” Sendel previously mentioned.
However, he swears that he has changed, thanks to therapy. And if he blames alcohol and drugs for his actions, he added on Tuesday that he may have autism, even if there is no real indication in this sense.
“I apologize for my actions, I hope [les victimes] are going to move on and lead a healthy life,” he told the court.
Judge Salvatore Mascia is expected to hand down the sentence at a later date.
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