(Quebec) Former journalist Michel Venne was sentenced to six months in prison for a sexual assault on documentary filmmaker Léa Clermont-Dion when she was 17 years old.
The 60-year-old man was escorted by special constables out of the courtroom in handcuffs as his wife watched. He will also be on the sex offender registry for 20 years.
“I consider it a very reasonable sentence in the circumstances,” said Judge Stéphane Poulin of the Court of Quebec.
The former director of the New World Institute (INM) was liable to a minimum of 45 days in prison and a maximum of 10 years. The six-month sentence was a joint suggestion of the defense and the Crown.
Remember that Mr. Venne appealed the guilty verdict. His lawyers will also ask Tuesday for a request for provisional release, while the appeal is heard, which should take several months.
Michel Venne’s lawyers invoke errors of fact and law in the decision rendered last June by Judge Stéphane Poulin. Me Lida Sara Nouraie and Me Nicholas St-Jacques believe that the accused was assessed “to a higher standard” than the complainant.
Recall that the victim accuses Mr. Venne of trying to insert his hand into his panties one evening in August 2008. She was a trainee at the Institut du Nouveau Monde (INM), then directed by the accused who had, in his words, “the age of [son] father “.
The accused had pleaded the misunderstanding. According to his version, he had simply put his hand around the shoulders of the young woman. The judge didn’t believe him.
“In general, there are few signs of sincerity in the testimony of the accused,” Judge Poulin noted in his decision.