Internet-based auction of prison artwork by a convicted killer under review

Corrections Canada has been ordered to review the Internet-based auction of prison artwork by a convicted killer.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day asked the commissioner of the prisons agency to look into the case involving Roch Theriault, now serving a life sentence in New Brunswick for a brutal murder.

The Canadian Press reported Sunday that more than half a dozen items by Theriault, including oil paintings, pastels, handprints and poems, have turned up on the U.S.-based website MurderAuction.com.

The site treats killers as celebrities, and offers collectors a chance to bid on a range of items, from toenail clippings to framed oil paintings. Critics denounce the trade as “murderabilia.”

“Minister Day is concerned with the fact that an individual would consider making profit out of a heinous crime,” spokeswoman Melisa Leclerc said in a statement Monday.

“Our government is committed to putting the rights of victims ahead of those of criminals.”

Theriault ran a bizarre religious cult near Burnt River, Ont., from 1977 to 1989, which attracted up to a dozen adults and twice as many children.

Charismatic and brutal, Theriault chopped off the hand of one concubine and disembowelled his wife.

The art being auctioned is abstract or contains inoffensive images such as flowers, and dates from October and November 2007. Minimum bids range from US$20 to US$500.

Gabrielle Lavallee, a former cult member whose hand and arm were severed by Theriault, had not seen the website but said Monday she was horrified.

“I think it’s horrible because . . . Theriault and other people like him, they make money on the victims’ back and I think it’s awful,” she said in an interview from her home in Chicoutimi, Que.

Calling the memorabilia auction “unfair, awful, unacceptable,” Lavallee, 58, said she is being victimized by “a legal system that seems to give more importance (to) criminals’ rights that victims’ rights.”

Lavallee, who last saw her abuser in 2002 when she argued against parole, called on Corrections Canada to halt the flow of Theriault’s artwork and other crime memorabilia from Dorchester Penitentiary.

Read Another Article

‘Death to Jews’ scrawled on El Al plane
Bishop of Oxford receives death threats over support for mosque leaders

Related News Articles Topic(s): Roch Theriault Subscribe to Religion News Blog updates Subscribe to Religion News Blog [What is this?] Get Religion News Blog's headline by Email [What is this?] Follow Religion News Blog at Twitter Find Related Information Use our custom search engines to find additional research resources on religions and cults: ApologeticsSearch.com: Search for apologetics articles, books, videos, and other research resources across 135 Christian apologetics websites and blogs. CounterCultSearch.com: Search for information about (religious) cults, cult-like organizations, and cults experts -- as well as paranormal-, New Age, and pseudoscientific claims -- across 260+ websites, blogs and forums dedicated to cult research, spiritual abuse, ex-cult counseling & support. Find Related Religion & Spirituality Books at Amazon.com Roch Theriault Possibly related... or Most Popular Religion News Articles Kent Hovind: Evangelist arrested on federal charges Beast’s real mark devalued to ’616′ Muslim Woman Gives Sex Advice on Arab TV Michael Jackson Confirms Conversion to Islam Kent Hovind, ‘Dr. Dino,’ guilty on all counts The fall and rise of Carlton Pearson Search False prophet Harold Camping sets another date for rapture: May 21, 2011 Watch the film Theo van Gogh was murdered for Kent Hovind — Dr. Dino — sentenced to 10 years in prison

Search Religion News Blog