A woman who has just suffered a concussion can become “sexually uninhibited”, a judge has ruled. That’s why a former Liberal MP was acquitted on Monday of sexually assaulting a woman who had just regained consciousness after lying on the ground. As she practically jumped on him, André Chenail had the “sincere belief” that she was consenting to the sexual acts.
Posted at 11:57 a.m.
“It’s a borderline case,” agreed Judge Joey Dubois, before acquitting the 75-year-old man Monday morning at the Salaberry-de-Valleyfield courthouse. Sexual consent and the consequences of a concussion on a woman’s behavior were at the heart of this lawsuit.
A well-known politician in Montérégie, André Chenail was mayor of Sainte-Clotilde in the 1980s, then MP for the Liberal Party of Quebec in Huntington from 1989 to 2007. However, this affair took place after his retirement from political life.
One day in December 2018, the complainant went to the accused’s house to receive a bottle of wine for a service rendered. The two know each other little and have barely spoken to each other until now. André Chenail offers the woman a glass of wine and begins to chat with her.
After drinking a first cup of wine, she heads for the bathroom. When he returns, his glass is full again. Shortly after, she doesn’t remember anything. An almost complete amnesia until the next day, with the exception of an image of André Chenail penetrating her, when she cannot move, according to her story.
When she wakes up, the woman is completely naked, on the couch, and her hair is soaked with vomit. She is in shock. ” I have fun last night “, André Chenail told him, according to his testimony. Since then, she is certain to have been drugged by the ex-MP. He was later diagnosed with a concussion.
As Justice Dubois points out, there are no “conflicting” versions in this case, since both sides are essentially telling the same story. However, the judge accepted André Chenail’s account of the complainant’s period of amnesia.
According to the former politician, the complainant fell to the ground, to the point of breaking a chair, while he was in another room. The woman was then “unconscious”, according to the accused, and did not move. He tries to pick her up, but struggles to move her. He puts her down on the couch where she seems to be falling asleep. She then vomits on herself.
When the woman comes to her senses, she stays in the bathroom for several minutes. On his return, the woman does not beat around the bush: she kisses the septuagenarian, takes off his sweater and touches his penis to excite him. He throws himself together on the couch, and she then opens her legs to “try to penetrate herself with the penis”, relates the judge. In short, the accused “let himself go”.
As he is unable to have an erection due to his erectile problems, André Chenail is “disappointed to disappoint”. The woman then tries to perform oral sex on him, but it doesn’t work. He then decides to please her with cunnilingus. In André Chenail’s eyes, the woman’s consent is clear, since it was she who initiated everything.
Justice Dubois found that the complainant did not freely and voluntarily consent to sexual activity because of her head injury. It was only after her fall that the complainant developed “sexualizing behavior, according to the judge. The latter, however, dismissed the thesis that the complainant could have been drugged.
“If she hadn’t suffered a concussion, she would never have consented to sexual activity. Her concussion altered her consent. Her injury deprived her of her ability to choose,” explained Judge Dubois.
If André Chenail could be acquitted, it is thanks to the defense of “honest belief” of consent. In his eyes, the complainant clearly consented to sexual activities and demonstrated it by her behavior.
For such a defense to succeed, the accused must not have been “reckless or willfully blind”. In this case, André Chenail knew that she was not drunk, that she had just had an accident and that she had had difficulty coming to her senses.
According to the judge, a reasonable person in the same context would not necessarily have taken “additional measures” to verify the complainant’s consent. “A reasonable person may have come to the conclusion that Madame had come to her senses and wanted to have a sexual relationship,” said Judge Dubois.
An expert testified at trial that some people with concussions – particularly women – exhibit disinhibition of sexual behavior following the shock. According to this expert, relatives of a person who has just suffered a concussion may not even notice any change in it.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
Mand Kim Émond, Crown Attorney
“This is the case here,” ruled the judge, giving the accused the benefit of reasonable doubt.
Mand Kim Émond represented the public ministry, while Mand Nadine Touma represented the accused.