A 71-year-old man who played Santa Claus in the Petit Champlain neighborhood of Quebec is facing a series of charges in connection with the sexual assaults on several women.
According to the accusations against him, Réjean Bacon hides under his air of nice Santa Claus, a very different face. The man who says he played the role of St-Nicolas in the Petit Champlain neighborhood for more than 40 years faces ten counts of sex and drugs.
Between January 1, 2015 and June 2021, Bacon allegedly assaulted two victims who were 25 and 18 at the start of the incident. Moreover, a general charge of having “sexually assaulted several female persons” was also filed against Réjean Bacon.
It should be noted, however, that all the complainants are adults and that the allegations therefore do not target children. According to the Integrated Pimping Squad, which began the investigation in the spring, it was the computer equipment seized during a search on May 26 that identified five young women who were allegedly victims of sexual assault.
Two other counts of voyeurism against the two victims identified above have also been filed because Santa Claus allegedly made video recordings of them. An accusation of having obtained sexual services for consideration also concerns one of the victims.
Drug traffic
Added to the sexual charges are three counts of drug trafficking and possession of Oxycodone and GHB which was allegedly seized during the spring search.
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In the meantime, a charge of breach of promise has been added against Bacon since the latter allegedly tried to communicate with one of the victims after the search. Yet the man retorted “I’ve been doing it for six months” when the judge asked him if he had understood the orders not to communicate with the victims that were issued during the appearance.
Santa Claus showed up at the courthouse last week because investigators were asking for an extension of time to analyze the searched items. The charges were officially filed Wednesday afternoon.
It was from the detention of the Victoria Park police station that the septuagenarian appeared. He will remain incarcerated until at least next week as the Crown opposed his request for release.
Driven out of Petit Champlain
In October 2021, Santa Claus had been talked about since his contract as Santa Claus for the Petit Champlain district had not been renewed, he who had been St-Nicolas for 41 years according to him. He had been hired at the Scott en Beauce theme park before the 2021 holidays.
The man with the white beard had been talked about for various hunger strikes he had started to protest against compensation from the SAAQ for road accident victims.