Testifying to having walked, the father of the little girl from Granby will know within the next two weeks if he will be able to regain parole, only 15 months after his conviction.
• Read also: 4 years in prison for the father of the girl from Granby
• Read also: Horror account of the death of a girl aged just seven
“I try to rebuild myself, because I lost everything that day. I lost my daughter, I lost my family. […] I made bad decisions that brought me where I am today,” he said during a hearing before the Parole Board of Canada (PBC).
A publication ban prevents us from revealing her identity, in order to protect that of the deceased.
Even today, the man who pleaded guilty in January 2022 to a charge of forcible confinement is unable to explain why he decided to tie up his own daughter using “tape” and a shirt tied like a camisole. by force, on the night of April 28 to 29, 2019.
“I wasn’t there anymore, it wasn’t working normally anymore,” he said, blaming the exhaustion he was experiencing at the time. I shouldn’t have, I didn’t see the solutions.”
The grandmother testifies
At the start of the hearing, the victim’s paternal grandmother gave vibrant testimony before the PBC, calling for the accused to remain incarcerated. “Quebec as a whole is furious to think that he can be released after such a short period of time,” she said.
“If he is released, you send the message that a child is not important, she added. Imagine the trauma this child went through before she died.”
In his testimony, the girl’s father said he “compassed” with the pain he caused to his loved ones.
“I had no idea that something so dramatic could happen,” he said. There are no excuses.”
Several conditions
During the hearing, it was specified that the correctional services recommended that the father of the little girl from Granby obtain day parole in a halfway house.
He will then have to respect a panoply of conditions, such as not to come into contact with members of his family and to report any relationships or friendships with women. Also, he would be prohibited from being in the presence of children under the age of 16.
The father of the child testified that he wanted to make his time in prison “constructive”, by finishing his secondary 5, by completing several programs offered in detention and by doing psychological follow-ups.
He has repeatedly stressed that he does not want to form a couple with a woman anytime soon, preferring to focus on himself.
He also indicated that he did not want to obtain custody of his now eight-year-old son, who had witnessed the tragedy, but that he would like to be in contact with him if the latter wishes.
The decision to release the father was taken under advisement and should be made within the next 15 days, the commissioners said.
Tied up with tape
During the trial of Granby’s mother-in-law, the more than disturbing circumstances of the girl’s death had been revealed. The father had admitted to having wrapped his own daughter with “tape” and a shirt tied like a straitjacket, to immobilize her on the floor of her room, while she had tried to escape through the window in the current of the night of April 28 to 29, 2019.
The next morning, he had gone to work as if nothing had happened, while the little one was still attached. He had then exchanged text messages with his spouse at the time, who told him to have “tied her up properly”.
It was finally around 11:30 a.m. that the father called 911, noting that his daughter was unresponsive on the ground, and no longer breathing. She had finally succumbed to her injuries, she who was in a lamentable state of thinness. Many had described her as “skeletal”.
The child’s death led to the establishment of the Laurent commission.