A father who used his daughter as a sex slave for more than a decade receives the maximum sentence for incest. Jean Blais will spend 14 years behind bars. A relief for the victim, who spent five years in court due to numerous postponements.
This is a heavier sentence than that proposed by the Crown, i.e. 12 years. For Cynthia Blais, the victim at the heart of the case, an endless nightmare ended Monday morning at the Laval courthouse. Tears make his eyes shine. She shows a smile of relief. Finally, it’s over.
“I didn’t even imagine it was possible to have such light shoulders. I had my life on hold, now I can move forward and make plans,” she confided at the end of the sentence.
We can name her since she had the publication ban lifted which protected her identity and that of her attacker.
It is extremely rare for a judge to exceed the sentence suggested by the Crown.
“Incest is like murder without a corpse,” declared Judge Serge Cimon while delivering the sentence of Jean Blais, sentenced to 14 years in prison. This is a very severe sentence for the man accused of sexually assaulting his daughter, while the Crown asked for 12 years in prison.
He treated her like his wife
Cynthia Blais watched the children’s show Bob the Builder on television the first time her father raped her. She was seven years old.
He started again less than a week later, then continued once or twice a week. The touching became full-blown sexual assault.
When she indicated that it hurt, he told her “she would get used to it.” »
Jean Blais continued to manipulate his daughter during her adolescence. If she wanted pocket money, to spend the night at a friend’s house, to go to a restaurant or to the cinema, she had to promise to give him oral sex. […] You had to pay to obtain the slightest “privilege.” »
The defense lawyer, Mr.e Mario Lavigne asked for five years for his client.
In his reading of the forty-page judgment, Judge Cimon highlighted the resilience and courage of Cynthia Blais, who went from victim to survivor. “Today she is a fighter who is slowly and surely regaining control of her life,” greeted the judge.