For having killed the young Océane Boyer, a “despicable and cowardly” crime, François Sénécal will spend at least the next 19 years of his life in prison.
The body of the 13-year-old girl was found on February 26, 2020 by a passerby on the edge of a public road in Brownsburg-Chatham, in the Laurentians. He bore the marks of violence.
The 54-year-old man was very close to Océane’s family since birth: she even called him “Uncle François”.
He pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder Friday at the Saint-Jérôme courthouse. This crime automatically leads to a life sentence: it only remained to determine the number of years that he was going to be incarcerated before being able to apply for parole.
The lawyers made a joint 19-year-old suggestion, which was accepted by Superior Court Judge France Charbonneau. He will therefore not be able to leave prison before the age of 73. He might even stay there longer because the parole board can deny any request.
“Rather than face the consequences of the acts of a sexual nature he had committed, François Sénécal preferred to kill his young victim to silence her and then erase any trace that could link him to him”, declared the judge of a your harsh.
The crime revealed
It was not known what prompted the man to commit this horrible crime. But on Friday, details were publicly revealed in an “agreed statement of facts,” filed in support of the plea and joint sentencing suggestion.
We learn that the man had sexually assaulted the teenager on several occasions from the summer of 2019. The day before his murder, the girl’s mother had told François Sénécal that she had an appointment with a psychologist the next day. Fearing that she would reveal her sex crimes, he went to find her at school and drove her home to talk her out of it.
Since she explained that she would have no choice but to tell the psychologist about him, he put sleeping pills in her drink to “buy time” to find a solution. As the girl has started to feel bad, he takes her in the car at random. Then he immobilizes her on the side of the road and, “without thinking”, he hits her several times on the head with a piece of loudspeaker which was in her car, can we read in the document filed with the Court.
He left her unconscious, but still alive, in a snowdrift, after taking off her pants, which had hair from her dog on them, which could have identified her.
words about pain
Several members of Océane’s family spoke to the judge in the courtroom, describing the pain and grief that has been in them since February 26, 2020.
The girl’s mother and older sister went to the lectern.
“You took my sister, our ball of energy. You took her away from us, ”said Cassandra Boyer, speaking directly to the condemned man, her voice choking with grief and anger. “We have so much hate, anger, frustration. But above all an immense emptiness…”
The mother struggled to read a text written in advance, in the name of her family “destroyed and annihilated forever”.
“You scrapped our lives,” she breathed.
The judge underlined their sentence: “the Court sympathizes with their pain, because the crime committed by François Sénécal is despicable and moreover cowardly”, she declared, noting that members of the family have sunk into depression, that others experience repeated nightmares and have to take medication, and also that Océane’s brother and sister are “struggling to get by. »
François Sénécal took the opportunity offered by the magistrate to speak to the family of his young victim. Crying, with difficulty breathing, he managed to say, “If I could back up, I would. But I can’t. He apologized despite saying he knows his apology is “meaningless” to those who are grieving.
“I can’t ask for forgiveness. It’s not forgivable. »