In a message to his alleged victim in 2020, ex-MP Harold LeBel said he had “no memory” of touching or assaulting her three years prior. “Here’s an evening of drinking I wish I had never known,” he wrote at the time.
On Wednesday, the complainant at the trial of the former member for Rimouski read an email she sent him three years after the sexual assault of which she says she was the victim. The accused, she said, was then trying to understand why she was keeping her distance from him. “I constantly dodged it if we passed each other, and we passed each other less and less,” she told the jury.
In this message, she tells him about the “great break” she experienced in their friendship during that fateful night in the apartment of the elected official in Rimouski. “The Harold I had seen a few minutes before had scared me,” she wrote. “All night until dawn, you didn’t let me go. »
Harold LeBel then replied that his email was “turning him upside down”. “I have no memory of any of that,” he added. “This is an evening of drinking I wish I had never experienced. He also said he was sorry and suggested that they go to “lunch” to discuss it.
However, in his testimony, the alleged victim of Mr. LeBel argued that he was not intoxicated at the time of the events.
The 60-year-old former PQ MP for Rimouski has been on trial for sexual assault since Monday. The identity of the complainant in this case is confidential by court order. She is due to be cross-examined by defense counsel on Wednesday afternoon.
Further details will follow.
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