MONTREAL — A man charged with uttering death threats on Facebook armed himself with high-powered weapons because he feared he was being stalked by elves, a Montreal court was told Wednesday.

Quebec provincial police told David Abitbol's bail hearing that he told a friend on the Internet that his .12-gauge shotgun was just what he needed to kill the mythical creatures.

A disturbing portrait emerged of the 28-year-old Abitbol during Wednesday's proceedings in which the Crown reported that an initial evaluation indicated that he was fit to stand trial.

"There's nothing at this point to make us doubt his ability to appear or his fitness to stand trial," said prosecutor Steeve Lariviere.

Besides uttering death threats on the Internet, Abitbol also had child pornography charges laid against him on Wednesday. He had also been previously charged with improperly storing his five firearms.

Sgt. Mathieu Bouliane, a Quebec provincial police investigator, read numerous messages Abitbol had written to correspondents on the Internet in which he said he repeatedly saw and heard elves at home and in stores.

At one point, after hearing static on his office walkie-talkie, he complained the elves had followed him there and he would quit if they showed up again.

Bouliane also testified that Abitbol wrote that he intended to kill former teachers and classmates.

The police officer also produced an inventory of the weapons found in Abitbol's home, which included high-powered rifles.

The five firearms included a .45-calibre pistol found under the mattress of Abitbol's bed. There was also an impressive amount of ammunition, both store-bought and hand-manufactured.

The weapons were registered.

Testimony also recounted Abitbol's fascination with weapons and gory videos.

In one message, he described in detail some videos of beheadings and executions, comparing the effects of the severed limbs to Picasso paintings.

Evidence was also entered that 250 child pornography files had been found on his computer, a first series consisting of about 100 images of a 10-year-old girl.

A second set, which had been deleted but was recovered by police specialists, found another 150 images of a girl aged between 10 and 14 years.

Bouliane said police have not finished with their analysis of the computer's hard drive.

Lariviere opposed Abitbol's release, saying he presents a threat to society.

"The comments made by the accused are sufficiently worrisome," he said, noting the arguments that Abitbol was just making bad jokes don't add up.

"These remarks were made on more than one occasion to several people so it's doubtful they were jokes."

Abitbol's parents have maintained his arrest two weeks ago was a mistake.

Both of them were in court on Wednesday and while their son remained impassive in the prisoner's box, Abitbol's father snickered at some of the testimony.