“That’s it, I’ll pass,” thought Martine* to herself as her tormentor sexually assaulted her in a wooded area of Montreal. Driven by adrenaline, she then managed to lift the man lying on top of her to escape. Her attacker had just come out of prison and was in “lack”.
David Catudal, 37, pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault causing bodily harm Thursday at the Montreal courthouse.
The facts of this case are very violent. On the night of May 4 to 5, 2022, Martine* returns from a party with colleagues in downtown Montreal around 9:15 p.m. Leaving the Papineau metro station, she meets a man on the street who begins to walk at his sides.
“My name is David and I am coming out of prison,” David Catudal tells him. The latter was indeed serving a prison sentence on the weekend for a case of armed assault which occurred in 2019. He had therefore just come out of a brief stay in Bordeaux prison.
Arrived on rue Notre-Dame, David Catudal becomes aggressive and grabs Martine by her backpack to lure her towards a wooded area, rue Alphonse-Roy. He grabs the victim’s neck and drags him to an isolated area, near the river, where there are some shrubs.
To survive, the victim decides to “let it go”. David Catudal kisses her, throws her to the ground, rips her pants and sexually assaults her. He tells his victim that “it’s been a long time since he had a sexual relationship”, underlines the Crown prosecutor, Me Jérôme Laflamme, in recounting the facts.
David Catudal takes another neckline on the neck of Martine who then thinks that her time has come. But thanks to an exceptional rush of adrenaline, she manages to get up, even if her attacker is on her back. On the street, a bus stops and lets her get on.
The attacker was pinched with his saliva, taken from the victim’s mouth. He was arrested two weeks later in Saint-Constant in Montérégie.
His lawyer, Mr.e Marie-Hélène Giroux, mentioned to the court that her client was “intoxicated at the time of the events”.
A report on the criminal profile of the accused will be produced in the coming weeks in order to enlighten Judge Pierre E. Labelle in imposing the sentence. The case will come back next May.