Liberated by the death of her mother who had told her not to speak and encouraged by Nathalie Simard’s book, a victim of sexual assault has just seen her attacker, the former partner of her sister, be found guilty of acts dating back to the 1970s.
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The accused, now 69, was convicted of indecent assault by Judge Stéphane Poulin in late February.
The man who cannot be named to protect the identity of the victim lived peacefully between the assaults that occurred from 1972 to 1975 and the denunciation of the victim, which came 45 years later.
The complainant is the younger sister of the accused’s spouse at the time. Six sexual events occurred when she was between the ages of 7 and 11.
Multiple assaults
The first assault occurs in the middle of a family dinner, at the dining room table. Sitting on the knees of the accused, the latter enters his hand into the girl’s underwear to touch her vulva.
Other episodes of touching, cunnilingus and digital penetration followed.
In one of the assaults, which takes place in the bathroom of the defendant’s accommodation, the young victim, who was around eight years old at the time, is forced to put the defendant’s penis in her mouth. He ejaculates rapidly, leaving her with “a disgusting taste” which she would clearly describe at trial almost 50 years later.
Judge Poulin qualified the woman’s testimony as sincere. “She testified soberly and calmly. At times, she reveals a certain sadness in connection with the events. She seemed transparent and honest,” remarked the magistrate in his decision.
As for the accused, his defense attacking the reliability of the victim and affirming that he has no memory of having had contact with the victim raised no doubt in the mind of the judge.
“The Court does not believe the accused”, affirms the magistrate bluntly. “He does not directly and truthfully answer questions related to acts of a sexual nature. An impression of falsity generally emerges from his account.
Freed Victim
The judgment says that the victim had already verbalized the acts of her attacker in the past, but she had never filed a complaint before 2019.
She had notably revealed the attacks to her mother, but the latter had then told her “that her father should not know about it”. At 18, she had also spoken of the gestures to her sister, the accused being confronted by the latter, but the file had not gone further. In 2018, she also wrote to the accused through Facebook, a message that remained unanswered.
It was after therapy that the victim finally took the last step.
“In 2019, her mother died and she read Nathalie Simard’s book, [ce] which constitute two events that prompted him to go further in the process of denunciation,” wrote Judge Poulin in his decision.
An arrest warrant was finally issued against his attacker in February 2021, 49 years after the first attack.
The case will return to court next April to set a date for sentencing submissions.