Former Parti Québécois MP Harold LeBel was found guilty on Wednesday of sexual assault in a case that dates back to 2017.
The twelve jurors, including nine women, delivered their unanimous verdict in the middle of the afternoon at the Rimouski courthouse. “Satisfactory” for the Crown, it constitutes a “shock” for the defence.
Mr. LeBel’s trial is scheduled to continue on December 6. The lawyers should then determine, together with Judge Serge Francoeur, the best time to establish Mr. LeBel’s sentence. The maximum sentence for sexual assault is ten years.
On Wednesday, defense attorney Mr.e Maxime Roy, did not want to say if he would appeal the decision of first instance or not. He did not grant an interview to the media present at the courthouse, just like Mr. LeBel.
The trial of Mr. Lebel will have lasted two weeks and dust. During the hearings, judge and jury will have had the opportunity to hear both the version of the complainant and that of the accused, who in turn presented themselves at the bar as witnesses.
At the start of the trial, the victim, whose identity is protected by a court order, recounted the unwanted approaches to which the former PQ member had subjected him to his Rimouski apartment. According to her, in October 2017, Mr. LeBel kissed her without warning, followed her to the bathroom, undid her bra and tried to force the door of the bathroom where she had locked herself key.
After leaving the bathroom and lying down in a Murphy bed, the complainant recounts having received an unsolicited visit from Mr. LeBel, who subjected her to hours of touching of her buttocks and anus.
“I’ve never done that in my life,” LeBel said.
Mr. LeBel had denied everything about the complainant’s remarks last week. “I’ve never done that in my life,” he hammered during his interrogation, while agreeing to have kissed the victim – with his consent – that night. The prosecution lawyers then tried to raise contradictions in Mr. LeBel’s versions: Why had he thanked the victim for having “left him [la] paste” in a text message sent the day after the events? Why had he expressed regret in an email sent to the complainant in 2020?
“You, do you regret things you didn’t do? asked the prosecution lawyer, Ms.e Manon Gaudreault, to the jury, during the pleadings held last week.
Sequestered since the beginning of the week, the jury had asked Tuesday to listen to an extract from the complainant’s testimony to clarify its verdict. What Judge Francoeur had consented to. The verdict was delivered after two days of deliberations.
Elected in 2014, Harold LeBel held the position of MP for Rimouski until last October. Representative of the Parti Québécois until his arrest in December 2020 – when he was also excluded from his caucus – he then sat as an independent.
Further details will follow.