A Montreal chef who savagely raped a woman on their first date believing she was “going to like it” will have to reflect on his actions at the penitentiary, where he will reside for the next 54 months.
“The accused and the victim had met shortly before the sexual assault, which occurred the night of their first date. He strangled her, slapped her in the face, spat on her and insulted her,” summed up Judge Suzanne Costom in sentencing Ben Maier in the last days at the Montreal courthouse.
Maier, a 34-year-old chef, had however said he was convinced to please his victim when he gave him hell at the end of the summer of 2019, a few days after having crossed paths with her in a park of The city.
volley of blows
The current had clicked and a few days later, they had agreed to meet face to face. And after a few drinks, the duo decided to head over to Maier’s.
“At a certain point, they kissed, it was consensual,” explained the magistrate, explaining that it was afterwards that things went wrong.
That’s because Maier then took it into his head to subject the woman to extreme practices, even if they barely knew each other. And when the woman said “no”, she received a first blow, she testified at trial.
“She had never been hit so hard,” said the judge. His neck twisted from the impact and his head was thrown to the side. Her ear started ringing, she couldn’t hear anymore. The accused then struck her from the other side. She froze.”
Maier didn’t stop there, however. Afterwards, he strangled her so that she couldn’t breathe and when she started to cry, the cook simply spat in her face.
“You are going to get raped tonight, you are a stupid bitch who deserves to be taught a lesson,” Maier had said, according to the victim.
He claims to be innocent
The woman had finally managed to break free and flee. Since then, she has lived in shame and fear, isolated, with the impression that “her sense of security has been taken away from her”.
Maier was arrested a short time later and even though he was convicted of sexual assault causing bodily harm, he continues to maintain his innocence, so he appealed his guilty verdict.
“He testified to the effect that during their sexual interaction, he was trying to do things that she was going to like and that was going to please him,” explained the magistrate, adding that the accused affirmed that “in the future, he was going to communicate better with his potential sexual partners”.
But that’s not likely to happen anytime soon, since even though Maier hoped to get away with house jail and community service, the judge sentenced him to four and a half years in prison, just a little less than the Crown’s suggestion.
“The defendant’s behavior was particularly degrading,” the judge concluded, eventually ordering Maier on the sex offender registry for 20 years.