“Medieval behavior worthy of a film script. A judge didn’t mince words to describe the “heinous” crimes committed by a bar co-owner and his employees last year. For 14 hours of horror, four executioners tortured a colleague suspected of stealing $40. A torture of extreme violence.
Hundreds of punches, kicks, knees, elbows. Sometimes unchecked with boxing gloves. The blade of a machete resting on the arm. A hammer and pliers at hand. A severed finger. It’s a miracle that Nick* survived this torture session engineered by his boss, Silvio Delcous, in December 2022.
The 40-year-old man, co-owner of three trendy bars in Montreal, Le Petit Mexico, Le Petit Moscow and Le Petit Cuba, was sentenced to six years and nine months in prison for his role as “leader”. Silvio Delcous indeed gave the orders to his henchmen, Saad Bennaceur, 21, Benjamin Jer Mi Chu, 25, and Charles-Antoine Lalonde, 24.
The first two were sentenced to five years in prison, against four and a half years for the third. The four accomplices pleaded guilty to counts of aggravated assault, forcible confinement and extortion, on May 24, at the Montreal courthouse.
Tortured in a basement
The ordeal of Nick, an employee of the bar Le Petit Moscow, begins on the evening of December 15, 2022, when he spends the evening at Le Petit Mexico. His boss, Sylvio Delcous, accuses him of stealing tips. Nick admits to taking $40, but claims to have given it back.
As Nick refuses to follow his boss to “discuss”, he arrives at 11:30 p.m. with two employees, the doorman Saad Bennaceur and the bar manager Benjamin Jer Mi Chu. The mobsters then take Nick to the basement of a bar that is not yet open, next to Petit Mexico, rue Saint-Denis.
Under orders from their boss, Bennaceur and Chu punch and kick Nick every 10 minutes, while Delcous slaps him in the face. All because Nick refuses to admit to stealing petty cash.
A few hours later, the executioners move to Little Moscow, not far away. Surrounded by his assailants, Nick gets pushed if he doesn’t walk fast enough. Accomplice Charles-Antoine Lalonde, another doorman, is on site.
Delcous summons Nick to give him $5,000. It starts a 10 minute timer. This is the time Nick has to find this amount using his cell phone. Each time the alarm rings, he is beaten by the three thugs. The newcomer, Lalonde, hits particularly hard.
Around 4:41 a.m., Delcous gets up, takes a “binding machine” and shows it to his victim. He places other items in front of Nick, including a hammer and pliers. The hits pile up. By tens. Then by the hundreds. And Nick never fights back. Once, he gets up from his chair, but is immediately knocked to the ground and corrected. The leader Delcous finally raises his hand to put an end to the aggression.
Around 6 a.m., Benjamin Jer Mi Chu leaves and will not return. Half an hour later, the remaining executioners demand a quasi-ransom from Nick’s mother. She receives a message from her son asking for $2,200. He has difficulty breathing. Then, an unknown man says he wants to hurt his son for a gambling debt. She hears his son screaming in pain.
Nick’s ordeal is still far from over. Delcous threatens him with a hammer, a large stapler and pliers and hits him with some of these objects. In a horrifying session of torture, Delcous seizes a machete and puts the blade on the left wrist of the victim.
Later, Delcous takes a knife and presses the blade to Nick’s throat. It is then around 10:30 a.m. At this time, Nick has managed to pay a certain sum to his executioner thanks to the help of those around him.
But his torment continues: around 12:30 p.m., Bennaceur and Lalonde put on boxing gloves to hit their captive, who loses consciousness. Delcous punches him in the sternum to wake him up.
Then, at 2:30 p.m., it’s deliverance. His executioners leave the scene and abandon Nick near the bar. A passer-by contacted the emergency services when she saw him. Nick is in bad shape. His injuries are so serious that his life is in danger. He will stay a week in the hospital.
“Particularly disturbing”
The consequences of this hellish night on Nick are indescribable: post-traumatic shock, nightmares, balance disorders, loss of memory. He will also have to undergo an operation due to a severed finger. “It’s particularly disturbing,” said judge Jean-Jacques Gagné on reading Nick’s statement.
“The consequences are terrible. It’s terrible, ”added the judge.
According to Me Isabelle Teolis, one of the defense lawyers, the case would not only be linked to the theft of $40, but also to the sale of narcotics.
The suggested sentences are at the “bottom of the range” of sentences in similar matters, agrees Judge Jean-Jacques Gagné, who however underlines the very quick acknowledgment of guilt of the accused, as well as the absence of an antecedent for three of them. ‘between them. Only Benjamin Jer Mi Chu had a criminal record, a one-year prison sentence in 2020 for fraud and possession of a firearm.
*Fictitious first name