A 59-year-old St. Thomas, Ont., music teacher, charged last year with trafficking a minor and sexual exploitation, is facing additional charges after a year-long investigation by police identified an additional 10 victims who were allegedly filmed without their knowledge while receiving music lessons at the home of the accused, officials said.
The 16 new charges, which include voyeurism, making child pornography and possession of child pornography, come a year after police first arrested the accused, Eugene Francois, at his home on Talbot Street, seizing computers and electronic devices in what police said was the largest such seizure in the history of the force.
At the time, police charged Francois with trafficking a person under 18, sexual assault and sexual exploitation in relation to a woman who alleged she was trafficked by the 59-year-old while she was a minor in 2013.
For the last year, police say they have conducted further investigation and analysis of the devices, and say female victims were filmed without their knowledge or consent while they were in the apartment between 2009 and May 2021, the month Francois was arrested.
Francois was known in the community to have provided music and recording lessons, and police allege it was during these interactions that the 10 victims were filmed, some of whom were underage, without their knowledge.
There are still several victims who have yet to be identified who were discovered in the thousands of images that have been processed, investigators said.
“If you are a female who attended the residence of Eugene Francois between 2009 and May of 2021 the St. Thomas Police urge you to please contact our Criminal Investigation Branch if you have not already,” police said in a statement on Monday.
Residents are asked to contact Det. Sgt. Aaron Fraser at 519-631-1224 ext. 4300, or by email at afraser@stps.on.ca.
No further information has been released.
Francois is expected to appear in court later this month, court records show.