A special education teacher from a school in eastern Montreal has “officially” formed a couple with a young vulnerable teenager in full view of those around them for years. The victim had however confided in a teacher from the school, then in an employee, who became his friend.
“It was known. It was not done on the sly, ”summarized Me Gary Martin, Véronie Campeau’s lawyer, in a press scrum.
The former employee of the Center de services scolaire de la Pointe-de-l’île pleaded guilty on Wednesday to charges of sexual contact with a minor, invitation to sexual contact and sexual exploitation. The 41-year-old woman faces a significant prison sentence.
Sarah* was 13 when she went to Véronie Campeau’s office to ask for help in March 2011. But the specialist educator at Antoine-de-Saint-Exupéry school took the opportunity to weave her predatory web around this very vulnerable teenager. One thing leading to another, Véronie Campeau won Sarah’s trust, attracting her confidences. They then started seeing each other outside of school.
According to the admitted facts, Véronie Campeau had sexual contact with Sarah on several occasions in 2011, including once in a hotel in Pointe-aux-Trembles. The accused explained to Sarah what it was like to “make love”. They then had sex, while a young child was in the room.
In a campsite in the Laurentians, in June 2011, Véronie Campeau and Sarah behave like “a couple”. They drink alcohol, listen to music, kiss and have sex. The same scenario is repeated during the summer of 2011, until the end of their “relationship” in the winter.
Véronie Campeau and Sarah then reunite and form “officially a couple” in December 2012, and this, until December 2014, according to the admitted facts. Sarah then puts an end to it to live a “normal” life. A document filed in evidence reveals, however, that Sarah then lived with the specialized educator from 2015, when she was still a minor.
It was in 2019 that Sarah filed a complaint, when she realized the hold that Véronie Campeau had over her in her youth. In her statement to the police, Sarah indicates that Véronie Campeau then worked at the Félix-Leclerc elementary school of the Center de services scolaire de la Pointe-de-l’île.
Also according to her statement to the police, Sarah claims to have confided to a teacher from the Antoine-de-Saint-Exupéry school in May 2014 that she formed a “couple” with Véronie Campeau. It is not known, however, whether the teacher in question has sounded the alarm on this subject.
Court documents reveal that many people around Sarah and the defendant were well aware of the nature of their relationship.
In her statement to the police, Sarah recounts having dated a 23-year-old employee of Antoine-de-Saint-Exupéry secondary school in January 2015, when she was in secondary 5. They formed a “couple” for a month . The victim claims to have informed this employee of his past relationship with Véronie Campeau.
“Around the month of March, [il] got caught and is therefore expelled from school. To my knowledge, the school did not inform the authorities; she just dismissed [X] she wrote in her statement.
“We would first like to point out that these are unacceptable situations that we deplore and which upset us. We express our full support for the victims,” commented Valérie Biron, spokesperson for the Center de services scolaire de la Pointe-de-l’île.
She insists that the Center “redouble its efforts” to promote an “enhanced” code of ethics that includes a student protection mechanism, so that “anyone who witnesses or suspects wrongdoing alert those responsible.
Sentencing submissions will take place later this summer. Me Karine Lagacé-Paquette represents the public ministry.