“I’ll show them what a savage is. What is it to be dangerous? Michel Vautour was an “extremely angry” man. After 15 years in prison, he believed he had “done everything” to regain control. Enraged, he kidnapped a teenage girl in broad daylight. An extremely rare foray into the head of one of the worst sexual sadists in the country.
“It was premeditated. I imagined that I would embark a woman […] and that I would sexually assault her. »
The soft voice. Scholarly discourse. Michel Vautour calmly recounts the nightmare he caused a 16-year-old girl to experience in 2020. His goal was clear: to kidnap the teenager on the sidewalk and sexually assault her. But his story goes off the rails. Suddenly, he rewrites history and gives himself the beautiful role. The young victim is so upset in the courtroom that the judge suspends the hearing.
The 46-year-old sexual predator is playing his all-out on Wednesday at the Montreal courthouse. The Crown is asking that he be declared a dangerous offender and given an indeterminate sentence. If so, he may never be freed again.
Handcuffed, Michel Vautour testifies sitting in the dock. Since his spectacular escape attempt from a penitentiary in 2021 with a long rope and a homemade grappling hook, there is no longer any question of taking chances. It is already exceptional that he is present in person at the courthouse.
“I’m not proud of what I’ve done,” he says.
The crimes committed by Michel Vautour – who was then called Michel Cox – are blood-curdling. Nicknamed “the aggressor of Laval” in the early 2000s, he prowled the streets at night to locate his prey, equipped with rope, tape and a knife. He sexually assaulted eight women and teenage girls between the ages of 14 and 25. He was sentenced to 21 years in prison.
“It was an escalation. I took drugs, I withdrew, and I fell into deviant sexuality. And it went down, it went down, it went down, ”he explains in a long monologue.
“I used sexuality as a coping mechanism. It led me to make deviant gestures. […] I tended to do it to de-stress,” he continues. Speaking carefully, Michel Vautour uses expert language to describe his problems.
“I was extremely angry”
Michel Vautour was automatically released in 2017 after having served two thirds of his sentence. He reconnects with an ex-spouse and then lives the most “beautiful period of his life”.
But a report to the DPJ – unfair in his eyes – ruins everything. The Parole Board of Canada then served him a “warning” for having violated his conditions by being with children alone, but let him go free. He reluctantly decides to break up with this spouse.
“It hurt me extremely. I was extremely angry. It hurt me. I just talk about it and it enrages me. I was extremely angry, ”says Michel Vautour.
From there, everything goes wrong. “I don’t trust anyone anymore. I was angry, I was not able to swallow the pill, ”he explains. “I was extremely angry and enraged,” he adds. He assures that he is not trying to “justify” his actions, but that he wants to express how he felt.
Two months later, Michel Vautour fantasizes about attacking a young woman, as at the time. It was there that he said to himself: “I am going to show them what a savage is”, he relates.
His sinister plan is well planned. In his vehicle, equipped with a flashing light, he has binoculars, tie wraps and a box of condoms. His prey is a 16-year-old girl walking down Saint-Viateur Street in the Outremont borough.
In broad daylight, he approaches her and identifies himself as a policeman. He makes the teenager believe that she is a suspect in a drug affair and handcuffs her, hands behind her back. He pushes her into the backseat and puts a mask over her eyes. The teenager starts screaming with all her might and tries to open the door.
The teenager is half out of the vehicle, but Michel Vautour holds her firmly, cramped in the back of the cabin. When the door finally opens, they both fall to the ground. The teenager is in shock and screams at the top of her lungs. Michel Vautour fled by car. He will be arrested in Saint-Jérôme after a high-speed pursuit.
On Wednesday, returning to these facts, Michel Vautour offers a new version. When the victim was on the back seat, he claims to have said to himself: “What am I doing here? I can’t “. He then claims to have told the victim that he was not a police officer. A watered down version of the story that upset the young woman on Wednesday.
His testimony continues Wednesday afternoon. He will then be cross-examined by the Crown prosecutor, Ms.e Annabelle Shepard.