The Crown is asking for prison time for a Windsor social worker who was found guilty of child luring involving a 14-year-old girl seeking his assistance with addiction issues.
Shaun Raymond Ouellette, 47, misused his role as the girl’s counsellor by grooming her for his own “sexual purpose,” assistant Crown Attorney Kyrstin Krainz stated on Friday.
“Mr. Ouellette was trusted to help a vulnerable child,” Krainz told Ontario Court Justice Christine Malott. “Instead, he groomed her. He knew about her addictions and vulnerabilities and took advantage of them.”
Ouellette was found guilty on one count of luring a child under 16 after a trial in June.
On Friday, the Crown requested the maximum sentence of two years less one day in jail for the offence. The defense did not present any sentencing arguments that day.
Court documents revealed that Ouellette was the girl’s counsellor for three months in late 2024. Ouellette, then 45, had been brought in to assist the girl who struggled with alcohol addiction.
In the Crown’s submission, Krainz explained how what started as a “normal therapist relationship” gradually shifted to interactions “outside the professional environment.”
Over time, Ouellette displayed increasingly inappropriate behavior, with conversations becoming more sexualized and personalized in nature as he reached out to her,” Krainz said.
Ouellette communicated with the victim at night and urged her not to tell anyone about it. He also added her on Snapchat, visited her home, and provided alcohol at two parties during that time frame, according to court records.
“This conduct undermines public trust in professionals working with children,” Krainz remarked on Friday.
Krainz pointed out that there was no sexual contact between Ouellette and the victim.
In a community impact statement presented on behalf of Windsor-Essex’s social work and mental health community, Maria De Rubeis stated that Ouellette had violated “the foundation this entire profession operates on.”
“Shaun Ouellette didn’t just commit an offence,” De Rubeis said. “He misrepresented himself to an entire professional community that believed him.”
De Rubeis mentioned it was an “almost unbearable irony” that as part of his job, Ouellette taught self-defense classes to individuals who had experienced trauma and abuse.
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“Some of those very people (who took his classes) needed protection from him,” she noted. “The person instructing others how to defend themselves against predators turned out to be one himself.”
The 14-year-old girl sought help from Ouellette for past traumas but ended up feeling like things became “100 per cent worse,” according to her mother’s statement read in court by Krainz.
Ouellette “befriended her and saw an opportunity to fulfill his sickness without considering the further damage his actions would inflict on a young child,” wrote the mother.
“No sentence will undo the last two and a half years filled with anxiety, trauma, therapy, and endless feelings of hopelessness experienced by my daughter and our family,” she added.
Ouellette is currently serving time behind bars; as of Friday he had spent 137 days in custody. The defense plans to submit their sentencing argument at a later date.
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