A St. Thomas man facing a string of sex-related charges, including making child pornography, was the owner of a company that faced a backlash in 2002 for selling “peeper” videos of footage secretly taken up the skirts of hundreds of Toronto girls and women, The Free Press has learned.
A St. Thomas man facing a string of sex-related chargesincluding making child pornography, was the owner of a company that faced a backlash in 2002 for selling “peeper” videos of footage secretly taken up the skirts of hundreds of Toronto girls and women, The Free Press has learned.
Eugene Francois, 59, is charged with 16 offences, including voyeurism, making child pornography and possession of child pornography, involving 10 complainants, St. Thomas police said Monday.
The latest charges came after an “extensive investigation” by St. Thomas police involving Francois, sparked after a woman contacted police saying she was trafficked in 2013 by a man she met while she was a minor.
It’s not the first time Francois, the former operator of a St. Thomas music studio in his apartment, has been charged with child pornography and sex-related offences.
Francois, who remains in custody, was charged with making and possessing child pornography in 2002.
The charges were laid after Toronto police launched an investigation into “upskirt” videos of more than 200 unsuspecting Toronto women and girls – including some school-age children – that were sold by Canamvideo, a company Francois owned.
The Toronto Sun, part of the same newspaper chain as The Free Press, reported in 2002 the voyeur up-the-skirt videos, shot with secret cameras in public places such as the Eaton Center and TTC stations, were being sold worldwide on the Internet .
Through that investigation, police alleged Francois “manufactured and offered for sale CD-ROMs of child pornography, ‘of the worst kind, including children as young as six involved in full sexual rape and abuse of all kinds,’” Toronto police said at the time.
The child pornography charges were later dropped, a Toronto court official told The Free Press on Tuesday, without providing a reason for the decision.
Francois was also charged with mischief in connection with the secret “upskirt” videos.
At the time, the Toronto Sun reported Francois saying he was “puzzled” by all the “silly” fuss created by the videos.
“Basically, from my understanding, anything shot in public is legal,” he said.
“If you look at the tape. . . most of these girls want to be watched.”
The videos were condemned by an anti-porn activist and the Catholic Civil Rights League, who urged Toronto police to charge Francois.
“The videos were taken in Toronto, they were taken for sexual gratification, the women don’t know they’re being filmed, the videos are being sold on the Internet and the Canamvideo owner himself has admitted the videos are candid. . . What more evidence is needed?” anti-porn activist Val Smith said in a 2002 story in the Toronto Sun.
The Catholic Civil Rights League complained to police about “Upskirts” videos featuring girls in school kilts.
“The seriousness of the matter is amplified because the parties are seeking to profit from their perversion through video sales. What is truly scary is (Francois’) contention that most of these girls want to be watched. . . who will protect the public if not the police?” rights league president Thomas Langan said in 2002.
It wasn’t immediately clear what the resolution of the mischief charge was.
More recently, Francois was charged in May 2021 with trafficking a person younger than 18, sexual assault and sexual exploitation, police said at the time.
As part of that investigation, St. Thomas police said investigators searched Francois’s home and seized several devices. St. Thomas police said the seizure of devices was the largest in the history of the police service.
“It was quite an investigation,” said a woman who works at a café below Francois’s St. Thomas apartment.
“Various large vehicles arrived from the police forensic unit, and a lot of officers came with paperwork and they went upstairs, and it went on all day.”
The apartment where Francois lived remains empty, said the woman, who asked not to be named.
An analysis of the devices showed females had been filmed without their knowledge and consent, police said. Some of the individuals were underage, police said, adding the findings led to the charges announced Monday.
St. Thomas police are urging any females who went to Francois’s home between 2009 and 2021 to contact them.
“Police have processed thousands of images and have discovered several (individuals) that have yet to be identified,” St. Thomas police said Monday.
Any women or girls who came to Francois’s home between 2009 and May 2021 are asked to contact St. Thomas police Det.-Sgt. Aaron Fraser in the department’s criminal investigation branch at 519-631-1224 ext. 4300.
With files by Free Press reporter Jennifer Bieman, The Toronto Sun and The Canadian Press