Posted at 5:00 a.m.
A Montrealer who targeted “accessible and vulnerable” women at random to assault them now faces two years in prison. Sobhi Akra pleaded guilty last January to charges of a sexual nature concerning eight victims, including two minors. The defense is asking for six months in prison so as not to interfere with his immigration procedures and to try to avoid him being expelled from the country.
“Women are not passive objects. They cannot be expected to be assaulted for the pleasure of others who are too ill to take charge of their own thoughts,” reads the written statement of one of the 39-year-old’s victims.
Some women targeted by the attacker said they were afraid to take public transport since the event. “It was a shock for me and I will always have this fear,” explained one of them in a letter addressed to the court.
Guilty of five sexual assaults and three attempted sexual assaults committed between October 2017 and November 2018, Sobhi Akra surprised his victims from behind. He grabbed their breasts or genitals. Some attacks took place in broad daylight, others in the evening.
A minor victim
In November 2018, he even attacked a 17-year-old girl on her way to school. He slipped his hand under the skirt of her school uniform, then ran off.
Sobhi Akra touched the buttocks and then the genitals of another victim, telling him: “You are so sexy, I want to give you pleasure. »
He then apologized before fleeing.
Another assault occurred on the station platform of a commuter train, while another victim was returning from the gym.
Premeditated gestures
The eight victims in this case were all taken by surprise, from behind, sometimes with their earphones in their ears. These women “were in a vulnerable position going about their business,” said Crown Prosecutor M.e Carolyne Paquin, who is asking for two years in prison.
The attacker was acting premeditated, according to Ms.e Paquin. “Monsieur names having chosen his victims for their vulnerability and their accessibility. »
Sobhi Akra’s lawyers are proposing six months less a day incarceration. This lenient sentence would allow him, according to the defense, to avoid being expelled from Canada.
The attacker’s lawyers also believe that these are impulsive gestures. This argument made Judge Alexandre St-Onge react. “Isn’t it worse that it’s impulsive?” I ask you the question,” he said.
“In a bad patch”
The man from Lebanon was “in a bad patch” at the time of the events, because he was frustrated and dissatisfied with his life in Quebec, reiterated his lawyers Me Reginal Victorin and M.e Andree-Anne Blais.
He was then working in a fruit store, did not like his job and had not adapted well to his immigration, according to their pleadings.
The aggressor would henceforth be a new man. He is the sole provider for his family and has young children. “He did not have the tools at the time to walk,” said Me Victorin.
Present in the courtroom, Sobhi Akra tapped his foot nervously as he listened attentively to the court interpreter reporting the pleadings to him. He shed a few tears once the meeting adjourned. His wife remained silent, her eyes on the ground.
Judge St-Onge will render his decision on the sentence on February 14.