Stephanie Beaudoin, who earned the unofficial title of world’s sexiest crook when an eye-popping bikini photo of her surfaced following her arrest in September , admitted Monday to 30 of the 114 counts against her stemming from a “Bling Ring” style burglary spree in Quebec, Canada.
The 21-year-old Beaudoin and three juvenile accomplices are accused of breaking into 42 homes and Beaudoin also faced gun possession charges. The case would be unusual in any event, simply for the puzzle of why a seemingly successful young nursing student with no prior criminal history would suddenly embark on life of crime.
But it was a steamy, online photo of the buxom Beaudoin uncovered by a Canadian newspaper that turned the Stephanie Beaudoin story from a small-time curiosity to a worldwide sensation.
La liste d’accusations contre la présumée voleuse Stéphanie Beaudoin continue de s’allonger http://t.co/wsCtGTertL pic.twitter.com/4eS5fdwwm9
— Journal de Montréal (@JdeMontreal) September 15, 2014
When the photo was circulated in late September, reaction on the Internet was widespread and predictable, with users posting such comments as “Stephanie Beaudoin can steal my heart any day,” and one male Twitter user even posting his home address and inviting the “world’s sexiest crook” to break into his house.
Whether Beaudoin will be breaking into anywhere anytime soon is doubtful since on Monday she took a plea deal that will see her enter 30 guilty pleas to charges that, at least in theory, could send her to prison for life .
“I regret what I did, I did not understand the magnitude of my actions,” Beaudoin told reporters outside a Victoriaville courtroom Monday. “Now I am more aware, and no matter the sentence that the judge chooses to impose on me, I will live with the consequences. I am ready to move forward.”
Whether Stephanie Beaudoin will spend any time at all in prison , however, has not yet been determined. Her lawyer, Denis Lavigne, said that even though the young woman was readying to start her hospital internship on the way to a career in nursing, she was suffering from depression at the time she and her accomplices went on their break-in spree.
Counseling and community service would make a more fitting sentence, Lavigne believes. He also said that though her accomplices were between four and eight years younger, Beaudoin was not the ringleader of the gang, just one equal member.
But Prosecutor Anthony Cotnoir noted that of the large quantities of jewelry, cash, computer equipment and firearms stolen by Beaudoin and her teenage gang, there are still items that remain missing. Unless they are recovered, Beuadoin could face a tougher sentence.
After the immediately infamous bikini photo of Beaudoin appeared, several other provocative shots from her social media accounts made the rounds.
The photos merely cemented her title of “world’s sexiest criminal.”
But outside the courtroom on Monday, Beaudoin appeared more modest.
Stephanie Beaudoin next appears in court on December 9 when she officially enters her multiple guilty pleas and possibly learns her fate.