A pedophile who calls his 14-year-old victim a “manipulator” wants to have his guilty plea withdrawn on the pretext that the Crown is asking for 6 years in prison, a sentence that would be more severe than expected. Despite the seriousness of his crimes, Claude Hamelin hopes to get away with house arrest.
Returning officer of Elections Quebec, the 58-year-old man sexually assaulted a teenager a dozen times in 2020. He pleaded guilty last January to one count of sexual contact with a minor.
Claude Hamelin took advantage of his relationship of trust with the victim’s family to attack the 14-year-old boy, whose identity is protected by an order. The predator had even been the subject of a long dithyrambic report in a media, a few years ago, to praise his great generosity with regard to children.
During the first wave of the pandemic, Claude Hamelin assaulted the teenager a dozen times by massaging his buttocks and touching him over his clothes. His roommate eventually caught him performing oral sex on the teen and alerted the victim’s parents.
PHOTO FROM FACEBOOK
Claude Hamelin
Three years later, the victim still has a “large internal injury”, underlined the Crown prosecutor Me Charles Doucet on Wednesday during sentencing submissions. The victim’s family was forced to move and change the school siblings, the prosecutor said.
The hearing took an unexpected turn when Mr.e Doucet has announced his intention to seek six years in the penitentiary. The defendant’s lawyer, Mr.e Mike Jr Boudreau, then expressed his surprise.
In his eyes, the public prosecutor had rather committed, during privileged discussions, to claiming four to five years of detention if the accused pleaded guilty, and seven to eight years in the event of a trial. “I am sheepish to make these observations to you”, apologized Me Boudreau to Judge Martin Chalifour.
“There has never been a common suggestion and there has never been an agreement”, hammered Me Sweet. “The reports are devastating. [L’accusé] treaty [la victime] of a manipulator, ”insisted the prosecutor to explain his request for six years.
Since the defendant’s “plea” was “flawed”, Mr.e Boudreau wants to have his client’s guilty plea withdrawn. There was also talk of a Nixon request. This type of request aims to oblige the Crown to respect an agreement that it would have repudiated.
The Crown prosecutor persists and signs: he only “considered” asking for four to five years in prison in the event of a finding of guilt. According to him, this range was conditional on the results of the assessments.
“In my eyes, there is not a serious prosecutor who will close a figure without having had the evaluations. We do this constantly, we give scales, but we must have the expertise before making a final decision, ”argued Me Sweet.
The prosecutor mentioned in court that the defense was planning to seek a community sentence. Such a sentence would be particularly lenient in this case.