A primary school teacher who filmed the crotch of teenage girls in public places wants to get away without a criminal record to continue “helping people”. However, Simon Lamarre still has “deviant sexual interests” towards young people and continues to pose as a victim of his “castrating” ex-spouse, argues the Crown.
“His mechanism of frustration for his sexual urges is to go and film little girls under their skirts near a college, it is to go to a beach where there are children in swimsuits. to go and make films, ”said Crown Attorney Me Sylvie Lemieux, during the representations on the sentence this week, at the Montreal courthouse.
The 40-year-old Montrealer pleaded guilty to a voyeurism charge last summer for having secretly filmed the private parts of young women and teenagers in public places between 2017 and 2020. The voyeur was particularly rampant in the metro, at the municipal swimming pool and in escalators.
Until recently, Simon Lamarre was a lecturer in two universities as an educational expert. He was also teaching in an elementary school in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce at the time of the events. However, the doctor of education risks having to put a cross on his career if he does not obtain the conditional discharge he is asking for. The Crown asks for a more severe sanction, namely a suspension of sentence (suspended sentence).
“It’s hard to find words to say how deeply I regret. There are no adjectives that can qualify my regret, ”Simon Lamarre told the court. If he does not return to teaching, Simon Lamarre hopes to “redeem himself” by helping offenders or people with mental disorders. But to do so, he must not keep a criminal record.
His lawyer, Me Alexandre Goyette, invited the media not to “sell scandals” and to focus instead on the rehabilitation of a man in “distress”. If he committed these crimes, it is because Simon Lamarre was “in a state of bewilderment, consumption, distress, identity crisis”, pleaded Mr.e Goyette.
“The reports are positive and the risk is low. He is an individual who is doing extremely well, ”added the lawyer. He also hammered out that Simon Lamarre had “never blamed his wife”, contrary to what a “publicized article” said.
He poses as a “victim”, according to the Crown
Simon Lamarre maintains in a report to have acted with “impulsiveness” only with the aim of “hurting his wife”, explains the prosecutor. According to her, the expert reports are very clear on the fact that the accused puts “the fault” on Madame.
“It’s as if Monsieur is disempowered, that Monsieur had been the victim of a wicked, castrating Madame and that he was the victim of all that”, pleaded Me Lemieux, who underlines the “moderate” risk of recurrence.
In addition, Simon Lamarre maintains “still hostility towards women,” insists the prosecutor. While he does not have a “sexual deviance,” a report indicates, he still presents a “difficulty of severe intensity for deviant sexual interests in adolescents. [et] certain difficulties of moderate intensity at the level of hostility towards women ”.
In the eyes of the Crown, the public would be “shocked” to learn that Simon Lamarre could once again find himself in “a position of authority” with students. “When Monsieur is doing his doctorate in education, he still walks around with a cell phone to film under the skirts of little girls, some of whom do not have panties. That is at the same time that he teaches in elementary school, ”illustrated Me The best.
Simon Lamarre had also been pinched by policemen in spinning, while filming the crotch of students in school uniforms at the Villa-Maria metro station, close to the primary school where he was teaching. When he was arrested, he was showing a “big smile” as he looked at the young girls in uniform.
In cross-examination, Simon Lamarre firmly defended himself from having “trivialized” these crimes. “I have never trivialized! We cannot trivialize such a serious act, ”he said.
“I lost two careers, maybe, that I liked a lot, for actions that are unacceptable. I do not blame anyone, I take full responsibility for my actions and I continue to walk and learn, because I believe that it is possible to experience real positive social reintegration ”, affirmed Simon Lamarre, who is pursuing therapy. .
Judge Jean-Jacques Gagné will render his decision at the end of the month.