A 58-year-old Montrealer received a four-year prison sentence on Thursday for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy. Claude Hamelin allegedly abused the relationship of trust he had with the victim and her family to commit these acts.
Dressed in black, wearing a surgical mask and a cap, the former returning officer of Élections Québec appeared at the Montreal courthouse on Thursday accompanied by his loved ones to receive his sentence. He left the scene with handcuffs on his wrists.
Charged in December 2020, Claude Hamelin pleaded guilty to the charge of sexual contact with a child under 16 in January 2023.
Despite his guilty plea, the accused claimed the victim was pushy and the teenager was a “manipulator”.
In court, Judge Martin Chalifour recalled that Claude Hamelin alleged in court “that he did not derive any sexual pleasure from what he was doing. His only satisfaction was to satisfy the victim. »
“The victim was in full development, the accused was a mature man. The idea that the victim was consenting is an illusion,” said Judge Chalifour during the sentence. “It is difficult to conceive that all the scenes described in the agreed statement of facts are only altruism.”
Claude Hamelin was very close to the boy, and the latter often spent time at his residence in the west of Montreal. It was in March 2020, at the start of the pandemic, that the 58-year-old attacker began to touch her more and more inappropriately.
On 12 occasions over a period of eight months, the 50-year-old subjected the teenager to his abuse before finally being caught in the act by his roommate in November 2020 while giving oral sex to his victim.
The teenager’s suffering did not stop after the arrest of his attacker. According to the prosecutor, Claude Hamelin’s actions forced the family to be uprooted: they had to move and change their children’s schools.
The Crown Prosecutor, Mr.e Charles Doucet, requested 4 to 5 years of imprisonment. The accused’s lawyer, Mr.e Mike Jr Bourdeau, for his part, requested that the accused serve a sentence of 2 years less a day in the community.
To determine the sentence, the judge took into account in particular the low risk of reoffending of the accused and his participation in psychotherapy, as well as the number and repetition of attacks, the breach of trust and the repercussions on the victim and his family.
Claude Hamelin will have to spend the next four years behind bars. He is prohibited from visiting public places where children under the age of 16 might be present, such as parks, schools and community centres, for five years after his release.