After a long career as a correctional officer, a Quebec man will discover what is behind bars after being sentenced to 8 years in prison for sexual assaults on a colleague’s daughter that stretched over a decade.
Marc Gros-Louis Monier abused for several years the daughter of the man who had been his colleague and friend for 25 years.
From the age of 5 until her mid-teens, the young girl was assaulted by the man who confided in court that he had the “click” when he saw her leaving the shower naked, when she was just a child.
There followed 10 long years of aggression, which took place at the home of the accused as well as that of the victim.[Agissant ainsi] he deprived the victim of any refuge or any area where she could have felt safe,” noted Judge Frank D’Amours in an unequivocal decision.
“A significant prison sentence is in order. The accused stole neither more nor less the childhood and part of the adolescence of his victim”, added the magistrate when pronouncing the sentence of 8 years of imprisonment, a sentence which agrees in all respects with the demands of the crown. For its part, the defense suggested two years of detention.
Over 10 long years
Gros-Louis Monier was sentenced to 7 years for counts of sexual interference and invitation to sexual touching in addition to another additional year for production of child pornography.
The victim had testified to the police at the time of his deposition in September 2019 that the pedophile, in addition to assaulting him, had photographed him naked and in sexually explicit poses.
“As if he had wanted to immortalize the gestures,” lamented Judge D’Amours.
The predator sometimes gave him money after the attacks or the taking of photos to buy his silence. And on at least one occasion, he went so far as to threaten her not to talk. “If you say so, who is your father going to believe? A child or an adult,” he asked his young victim.
The first assault occurred in 1998, when the girl was just in kindergarten. Passing by the accused, he took off her panties to lick her private parts, putting a pillow over her face to prevent her from seeing.
For the next 10 years, the abuse continued, ranging from cunnilingus and forced oral sex to touching breasts under her clothes and masturbating.
“I never asked to discover sexuality so young. I have never asked to be forced to do these things with someone who disgusted me. I had to grow up faster than I would have liked, my childhood was ruined”, testified the young woman during the procedures.
Broken trust
Judge D’Amours also referred to the bond of trust that existed between the accused and the young girl, describing it as a serious aggravating factor. Gros-Louis Monier had been a colleague of the little girl’s father at the Donnacona penitentiary for several years and a friend of the family.
“He used the deep bond of friendship the victim’s father had with him to not only gain access to the victim, but also to impress upon her that her father or anyone else would ever believe her if she were to speak,” said the magistrate, who was in no way fooled by the testimonies of the relatives of the accused who described him as a man of heart, generous and attentive, having had an exemplary career.
“Unfortunately, this is too often the profile of the sexual predator who acts with impunity over a long period,” said the judge, adding that “the greater the reputation, the more difficult the suspicion.”
Gros-Louis Monier finally took the road to the cells on Friday, handcuffed in front of his victim who shed a few tears at the time of the sentencing which finally allowed him to turn the page on the procedures.
“It never repairs the harm that is caused and it never repairs the consequences that this sexual abuse has on someone, but legally, it is a sentence that I consider appropriate”, indicated the prosecutor of the prosecution, Me Andréanne Sirois.
Gros-Louis Monier also banned from Wendake
Of Huron-Wendat origin, Marc Gros-Louis Monier had been banished from his community by the Wendake band council at the time of his guilty plea in 2021.
The council had adopted its by-law “concerning the banning of people in Wendake” on October 25, 2021 and its first implementation came two days later, on the 27th, to expel Gros-Louis Monier.
The latter had requested the lifting of the ban in the following weeks, but his request had been rejected since the regulation aims to favor “the residence of the victim rather than the presence of the aggressor in the community”.
Mixed weight in the sentence
Gros-Louis Monier’s lawyer had pleaded for this factor to be taken into consideration in the imposition of the sentence on her client, the latter wishing that the banishment would lead to a reduction of his penitentiary sentence.
However, even if the case law takes it into account in certain cases, Judge Frank D’Amours indicated that in the case of Gros-Louis Monier, the banishment has a mixed weight.
According to the magistrate, his exclusion does not stem only from the conditions imposed by justice within the framework of a sentence, but above all from an external and independent decision of the community.
“The judge made the distinction between a banishment which would be an integral part of the sentence and one which results from the consequences of the choice of the accused to commit his crimes, which was the case in our file”, explained the prosecutor of the crown, Me Andréanne Sirois.