A woman who denounced in the wake of the #metoo movement the repeated sexual assaults suffered at the hands of her stepfather 30 years ago was believed by the judge, even though her testimony was “far from perfect”. The 62-year-old Montrealer sexually assaulted his 11-year-old stepdaughter several times a week for two years.
Posted at 7:00 a.m.
“My childhood is a black hole. I don’t feel like I’m going to have another way of life. I feel like it’s always going to be like this. […] [J’étais] wiped out. I was very ashamed. I remember a lot the fear that I lived. »
This is how the victim, now in his mid-forties, recalled his difficult childhood at the trial of the 62-year-old pedophile at the Montreal courthouse. He was found guilty on May 31 of sexual assault and sexual interference with a child under the age of 14. The accused cannot be named in order to protect the identity of the victim.
Overwhelmed by shame and feeling responsible, the victim remained silent for 30 years, before denouncing his executioner thanks to the #metoo movement in 2019. A center for help and the fight against sexual assault (CALACS) l then guided her to file her complaint.
From 1989 to 1991, his stepfather took advantage of his mother’s many absences, struggling with gambling problems, to repeatedly sexually assault the child. The pedophile had got into the habit of lying on the victim on the sofa in the living room and then rubbing his pelvis against her in a sexual way.
“It was several times a week, whenever he had the opportunity,” explained the victim at trial.
On another occasion, her stepfather sexually assaulted her at night, by slipping his hand under her jacket, while he was masturbating. “She was paralyzed,” says the judge. For years, her stepfather asked her to “keep it a secret”.
Candid though imperfect testimony
In his 50-page decision, Judge Dennis Galiatsatos points out that despite its imperfections, the victim’s testimony was “frank, convincing and imbued with authenticity”. His inaccuracies are easily explained by his “young age” during the events, according to the judge.
On the contrary, the accused delivered an “arranged and exaggerated” version by trying “at all costs” to establish that he could not have committed the crimes. Efforts that demonstrate his desire to “deceive the Court” to exculpate himself, judge Galiatsatos decides.
According to the defense, the victim had invented everything out of “resentment and revenge”, because the accused would have reported her to the police for having hit her mother in 1995. A theory “devoid of all common sense”, according to the judge, considering it unlikely that a young girl would have waited two decades to orchestrate such a ruse.
Sentencing submissions are scheduled for next September. The accused, still at large, is defended by Mr.e Cyrille Girot. The Public Ministry is represented by Mr.e Geneviève Rondeau-Marchand.