A man recently arrested by Montreal police as a suspect in five fires deliberately set in the city has a long history of mental health problems and admitted in the past that he began setting fires when he was a child.
Alain Paillé has spent several years behind bars in the past for fires he set in Montreal, Granby and Shawinigan. In almost every case, he set fires in garbage cans, but he was convicted, at least twice, of putting human life in danger by setting a fire. Decisions by the Parole Board of Canada, since 2012, describe him as a socially isolated introvert who has often been unhoused and unable to function on his own in society. He has also been diagnosed as schizoid and someone with very unusual fetishes, including a sexual fascination with urine and with wearing diapers even if he was not medically required to wear them.
Paillé, 59, was arrested by Montreal police on Aug. 1, shortly after a fire was set inside a garbage container behind a building on Crescent St. Montreal police said he is a suspect in a total of five arsons between July 29 and the day of his arrest. The other fires were set inside garbage containers and in a vehicle.
Hours after his arrest, Paillé was charged with five counts of arson and one count of being in possession of an incendiary device. He remains in jail pending a court appearance on Aug. 21.
His most recent sentence was a 69-month prison term he received in 2014, after he pleaded guilty at the Granby courthouse to arson and possessing an incendiary device. The Granby police received a tip alleging that Paillé was the person behind several small fires in that city and a decision was made to place him under surveillance. He was arrested while setting fire to a container behind a residential building.
While he served that sentence, the Parole Board of Canada refused to grant him both day and full parole in 2017 because he was considered a very high risk of reoffending.
“Your parents divorced when you were about eight years old and your mother had custody of you. You started lighting small fires during childhood, when your mother was away. During adolescence, you started lighting fires in trash cans,” the parole board wrote in one of its decisions.
During one of his parole hearings, Paillé told the board he set fires when he was young because he was unable to control impulses and because he felt a sense of “power” when the fires were set.
As an adult, his criminal record includes several convictions for arson or arson-related offences, including about 10 convictions in 1986 for fires he set in Shawinigan.
“You say setting fires is a solution used since childhood to release your feelings of anger and of frustration,” the parole board wrote in a decision dated June 8, 2012, while Paillé was serving a sentence for having set fires in fireplaces inside a building that was under construction in Montreal. “According to your case management team (CMT), you have significant difficulty coping with negative situations. You say it is difficult to cope with the emotions that arise and you have a weak self-esteem; frustrations accumulate and acts of pyromania then become an outlet.”
Paillé was denied parole while he served that sentence as well, but he automatically qualified for a statutory release months later. The parole board was limited to deciding whether conditions should be imposed on the release. It imposed several, including one requiring that he reside at a halfway house.
Months later, his release was revoked because he was found to be very drunk while at the halfway house. He admitted to keeping a 40-ounce bottle of brandy in the snow outside the halfway house. A decision was made to search his room and authorities at the halfway house discovered a staggering amount of items including a few that revealed his fetish for urine.
“When taking inventory of your personal belongings in your room, different items have been listed: women’s underwear, pantyhose, lipstick, pornographic DVDs (59), pornographic magazines (49), notebooks filled with photos of nude women cut out from magazines, a handmade drawing of a naked woman soiling her underwear, soiled diapers (urine and excrement),” the board wrote in a decision made in 2013. “The room was in a terrible state and filled with objects of all kinds that should have been in the garbage can.”