Ex-teacher blamed stripping on diabetes

MONTREAL — A former French teacher who admitted to stripping for female students blamed his diabetes, which he says puts him in a frame of mind in which "anything can happen."

Yannick Letendre, 43, pleaded guilty to performing a striptease online for four girls who attended Cavelier-de-LaSalle high school in Montreal's west end.

At his sentencing hearing Thursday, Letendre blamed Type 1 diabetes and low blood sugar for the lewd acts he performed during a sabbatical in 2009.

"I can get weak or have hot flashes or spasms," he told Judge Silvie Kovacevich. "I can be in my own world, where anything can happen."

The Crown said the profile photo on Letendre's instant messaging account showed his bare bum, but Letendre insisted he only took the picture on the night of the crimes in question.

Letendre also admitted he exposed himself online "a dozen times" over a five-year period.

"If I were in front of someone I wouldn't have done it," he told the court. "But I was in front of a machine, I made a mistake."

One of the girls recorded Letendre's lewd act. He was arrested in January 2010 and was later fired.

An endocrinologist, Dr. David Grunbaum, partially corroborated Letendre's defence.

Grunbaum said people with Type 1 diabetes who take insulin can exhibit "bizarre and inappropriate" behaviour as well as blackouts and memory loss.

But upon cross-examination, the doctor admitted he had never seen any studies linking diabetes and online exhibitionism.