Former Parti Québécois MP Harold LeBel will serve eight months in prison for having sexually assaulted a co-worker in 2017. “It bothers me to be seen as someone who is an aggressor,” he said. said when receiving his sentence on Thursday.
Mr. LeBel will be on the National Sex Offender Registry for 20 years. “It’s terrible for me, which… My career, my core values. I have always been someone who has been close to the groups that fought against aggression, ”he argued before judge Serge Francoeur.
A few minutes earlier, one of the prosecution lawyers had read a text from the victim, whose identity is still protected by a court order: “The only positive point is that it allows me to turn the page. […] But that doesn’t take away the pain or the pain. »
“You think you know someone, and, in a few seconds, everything collapses,” read Me Manon Gaudreault. “It took me a long time to accept being touched on certain parts of my body. It happens to me to keep this recoil reflex even today. »
According to defense lawyer Me Maxime Roy, the decision taken on Wednesday by the Quebec Court of Appeal regarding the twelve-month sentence of engineer Simon Houle “confirms” the validity of the sentence imposed on Mr. LeBel.
“In ‘Simon Houle’, what the Court considers is that the gravity is greater, considering the voyeurism and the photos taken by the accused. Which is not the case in Mr. LeBel’s situation [et ce] which justifies that there are four months less of detention”, he indicated.
Former politician LeBel was found guilty of one count of sexual assault in November, but has so far been awaiting details of his sentence.
Further details will follow.