An aspiring singer alleges she was sexually assaulted by ousted impresario Guy Cloutier in the late 1970s and is suing him for $15,000 in a civil action. Michelle Charron told a judge on Tuesday about the events that marked her life with a red hot iron.
The ex-producer Guy Cloutier – sentenced to prison in 2005 for sexual assault against children – was conspicuous by his absence Tuesday at the Montreal courthouse. The trial therefore proceeded without his presence. The registry has in fact “omitted or decided” not to submit Ms.me Charron who demanded his presence.
The Press could not have access to the affidavit of Guy Cloutier. Judge Yves Hamel refused to give access to the court file to media representatives.
Michelle Charron claims to have been taken under the famed producer’s wing in 1979 after meeting him at a restaurant. She then dreamed of a career in song. “This is the chance of my life! “, she testified, about their first meeting. One evening in 1979, Guy Cloutier had invited him to a tribute to René Simard. He then booked her a hotel room, she said.
That evening, says the 65-year-old woman, she went to bed a “little gorlot”. At 6 a.m., she was awakened by a “bang”. Guy Cloutier then landed with a bang in his room, she argues. “So you’re acting really hard there! “, would then have launched the producer.
“I was 19, I was all cute. I looked like a child,” adds Michelle Charron.
“He sits on my bed, he tries to touch me, I tell him: ‘Stop Guy, stop Guy’. He undresses, he says to me: “Leave it to me”, he opens an arm for me. I’m destabilized, I’m taken by surprise… Then, her big belly, on me, I find it ugly. He comes inside me, two minutes, two seconds… He garroched me $100. He said to me: “Me, it excites me to pay for sex”, says Michelle Charron in one breath, sobbing.
Transfixed by shame, Michelle Charron nevertheless goes to an appointment at Guy Cloutier’s office later in the day to shoot an advertisement. She maintains that Guy Cloutier boasted of his exploits to the other people present. “I had it, another one”, then boasted the impresario, alleges Mme Wheelwright.
Later, Guy Cloutier also said to him: “Don’t forget, you are mine. »
These events led Michelle Charron into an infernal spiral: depression, alcoholism, agoraphobia, etc. “It was too heavy on my shoulders,” she sums up. More recently, following the failure of her criminal complaint, she has been plagued with psychiatric problems, she explained.
“I didn’t realize I had been raped,” the 65-year-old woman told the court. Michelle Charron claims to have hidden this shameful memory within her for decades, until she denounced the police a few years ago, in the wake of the #metoo movement. His criminal complaint, however, was dismissed.
Lacking the means to afford a lawyer and file a motion in Superior Court, Michelle Charron decided to turn to the Small Claims Division of the Court of Quebec to bring a civil action against Guy Cloutier. This division rarely hears sexual assault cases.
Today, if she claims $ 15,000 – “pinottes” – it is mainly to be heard. “No money is going to repair the harm that has been done,” she explains.
Michelle Charron hopes she will be believed, even if several dates do not match. Judge Hamel pointed out that certain documents filed by the woman indicated that the alleged assault took place in 1976, 1977 and 1980, while she maintains that it happened in 1979. She justifies these date errors by the repression and the shame experienced.
“It’s as if we were thought to be crazy, liars. Do you think that at 65, I would be wasting my time? That I would come and lie? I have other things to do. I just can’t wait to turn the page, ”she concluded.
The judge took the case under advisement. However, he warned Mr.me Charron that Guy Cloutier could ask for a retraction of judgment, as the trial took place without his presence.