Crown Attorney argues for five years in prison for Rick Despatie, but his defence lawyer asks instead for one-year conditional sentence. A judge will decide next year.

Rick Despatie had everyone fooled at St. Matthew Catholic High School — except for his students.

The disgraced math teacher’s sex crimes went unchecked for seven years at the Orléans school until some brave young women came forward.Article content

Despatie, now 60, was found guilty in September of sexual assault, sexual interference and criminal harassment involving four former students, aged 12 and 13 at the time. All of this went on at the school, in math class or what the teacher called “private detentions.”

In a moving impact statement at a sentencing hearing on Friday, one victim said her life was so shattered that she was suicidal. But the young woman, still struggling with fear, anger and anxiety years later, summoned the courage…