Updated yesterday at 5:08 p.m.
The complainant in the Harold LeBel sexual assault trial explained that she waited almost three years before filing a complaint because she was afraid to denounce a deputy who had “a great reputation” and who was loved by all.
“I was afraid that it was me who was living the consequences of this case,” said the complainant, whom a court order prohibits naming.
The young woman would have finally changed her mind after the arrest of André Boisclair in May 2020. The former leader of the Parti québécois has since been convicted of sexual assault and is serving a two-year prison sentence.
“It really marked me. Because in political circles there was a lot of hearsay about André Boisclair […] People were probably aware, ”said the complainant at the Rimouski courthouse.
She says she began to wonder if other people might be victimized by Harold LeBel if she remained silent.
The Boisclair affair also made him realize that it was possible to file a complaint for sexual assault while remaining anonymous.
“I didn’t want to experience a media storm around that, that my photo was there, that my name was there, to hurt my parents. I thought it was unnecessary trouble. I wanted to preserve my parents,” she said on the third day of the trial.
She finally decided to press charges in July 2020 and Mr. LeBel was arrested on December 15.
The complainant’s testimony occupied the entire third day of the highly publicized trial of the ex-politician. In cross-examination, the defense suggested that the touching of which she says she was the victim in the Murphy bed would not have happened at all.
On Tuesday, the complainant recounted the “endless night” she allegedly suffered in October 2017 alongside the former Parti Québécois deputy. She was then in Rimouski for work and had been lodged, with a colleague, with Mr. LeBel.
She told how the 60-year-old, decades her senior, suddenly tried to kiss her, then undid her bra despite her protests. Then, during the night, Mr. LeBel allegedly came to sleep with her in a Murphy bed, where she says she was hit in the buttocks and anus.
The defendant apologized
A few months before the arrest of André Boisclair, which served as a trigger according to the complainant, and several months before filing a complaint, she had decided to write to the accused.
“I immediately thought that you were a good guy, sensitive and caring,” she begins in an email dated February 21, 2020 and read in court. Then this night of October 2017 was, according to her, a “great break”. “I remember every minute. »
She tells the accused that that night she was afraid of him and froze when he started touching her in bed. “I don’t know if you thought I was asleep,” she wrote.
I understood that this was the reaction of many girls when they are victims of sexual assault.
The Complainant
Mr. LeBel responded the following day, February 22, 2020, asking for forgiveness. “I remember waking up next to you wondering what I was doing there,” LeBel replied in an email. “I don’t remember any of that. »
Defense looks for incongruities
Harold LeBel’s lawyer tried to raise incongruities in the victim’s testimony. “So you could have gone to the hotel and you decided not to go?” asked M.e Maxime Roy, noting that the trip was for work and that she could have been reimbursed for a room.
He also asked her why she hadn’t tried to wake her sleeping friend in Mr. LeBel’s apartment, after the first attempt at kissing, but before the alleged touching in bed.
“It’s easy after the fact… But me, when he leaves in front of the door, I say to myself: It’s over. He got the message,” she says.
“I suggest that Mr. LeBel never fondled your buttocks or inserted his finger into your anus,” Ms.e Roy. “That’s not true,” retorted the complainant.
The 14 jurors – 10 women and 4 men – will have to decide if Harold LeBel is guilty of sexual assault at the end of this trial scheduled for two to three weeks. Mr. LeBel pleaded not guilty.