Istanbul prosecutors have requested a prison sentence of between five and 24 years for a 45-year-old Canadian national, Claude Joel Fortin, on charges of sexually abusing minors and possessing and distributing child pornography.
Fortin was arrested in October while employed as a foreign-language teacher at a well-regarded private school in Istanbul. Judicial officials confirmed the sentencing request Thursday but withheld further details, citing the confidentiality of pre-trial proceedings.
The case originated after Turkish police received a tip from the FBI regarding child pornographic material being downloaded in Türkiye from US-based websites. A search of Fortin's apartment in the Bebek neighborhood turned up more than 12,000 images and videos; roughly 500 were identified as child pornography, including photographs believed to have been taken by Fortin himself.
His arrest stunned colleagues at the ENKA school network, where an administrator called him "one of our best and most popular teachers." No trial date had been set as of the report.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in December 2006, in its own words.