A dangerous criminal is dishandled for trial. During the break, he beats up the agents and escapes towards the judges’ corridor. This is the scenario as exceptional as it is terrifying which occurred two years ago at the Montreal courthouse.
“It was very, very difficult,” testified correctional officer Audrey Laferrière at the trial of Alexis Barnabé-Paradis at the end of September. The victim was scarred for life by this attack.
The 43-year-old man is one of the most violent criminals in recent years in Quebec. Already sentenced to an indeterminate sentence for a wanton attack on a stranger, he was sentenced to 18 years in prison last winter for an extremely brutal attempted murder.
It was precisely on the first day of his trial in this case that Barnabé-Paradis came off his hinges, on October 5, 2021, causing the trial to be aborted and a second jury to be formed.
Alexis Barnabé-Paradis admitted his guilt, on September 22, to charges of serious assault against a correctional officer, breach of prison, mischief and resisting arrest.
But when it was time to plead guilty, as expected, to having injured a correctional officer, Barnabé-Paradis turned away.
“I never touched her. That’s not true,” he said.
A comment which forced a trial to be held on this charge.
Violent attack
Audrey Laferrière was assigned to the trial of Alexis Barnabé-Paradis in October 2021. During the break, she and her colleague left the accused box and placed the accused in a cell, in an area which is not visible from the courtroom.
He was uncuffed and had no mask. He didn’t want to collaborate. We wanted him to put on his mask and handcuffs. He didn’t want to, he said he had to urinate. He refused several times.
Correctional officer Audrey Laferrière
It was at this moment that Barnabé-Paradis would have exploded.
“He punched my colleague in the face, then pushed him to the back of the cell. I was at the door. I had time to take a step back. The gentleman rushed forward and punched me in the jaw on the left side,” said Mr.me Laferrière.
The correctional officer says she saw the man break the sanitary plexiglass, then head towards the door leading to the corridor reserved for jurors and judges. In the room, there was only a police officer and a constable, according to her.
His colleague, still stunned, then appears with handcuffs. He was then beaten up by the accused, she said.
“I took off running, jumped on the chair and grabbed Mr. Barnabé’s neck. I was on his back, legs hanging in the air. Then, my colleague was able to get out of the situation. I was headbutted,” she testified.
Special constables finally arrived as reinforcements to help the correctional officer control Barnabé-Paradis.
“I walked up to my colleague and collapsed. I had Mr. Barnabas’ blood all over my shirt. His arm was bleeding. He had scalped him in the Plexiglas. I started crying,” she said.
This attack had significant consequences in his life. She suffered a severe concussion, an arm injury and post-traumatic shock.
Discordant version
“I don’t hit the world for free. I have no malice. […] He looked for it. If he hadn’t hurt me in the beginning, I wouldn’t have hurt him. »
This is how Alexis Barnabé-Paradis justifies his attack on the correctional officer. He accuses the latter of having hurt him by pulling on his handcuffs, while he insisted on going to the toilet. If he admits this attack, he denies having hit Audrey Laferrière. “I never touched the lady,” he swears.
Her story differs from that of the complainant on a key point. Indeed, Barnabé-Paradis claims to have hit the correctional officer in front of the judge and his lawyer, and not in a cell outside the courtroom.
I waited until I was in the courtroom, until my lawyer asked to uncuff me, and then I hit the man. […] The jury was not there yet, only the judge.
The accused Alexis Barnabé-Paradis
This surprising version, put forward during cross-examination, derailed the trial, since according to his account, his current lawyer, Me Catherine Daniel Houle, would have witnessed the entire scene. And according to him, it was she who asked to have him uncuffed just before the attack.
The Crown prosecutor, Me Geneviève Boutet, therefore asked to disqualify Me Daniel Houle to defend his client. “She is a compellable witness. She cannot act in this matter,” argued M.e Boutet. The trial is therefore suspended until Judge Roxane Laporte decides this question.
Note that a spokesperson for the Superior Court declared to The Press in 2021 that the judge had followed the usual procedure in uncuffing Barnabé-Paradis.