A special education teacher from a school in eastern Montreal who sexually exploited a vulnerable student for years “officially” formed a “couple” with her in full view of those around them. The teenager had however sounded the alarm by confiding in a teacher from the school.
“It was known. It was not done on the sly, ”summarized Me Gary Martin, the defendant’s lawyer, Véronie Campeau, in a press scrum. Court documents reveal that many people, including the victim’s family, knew that the special educator had sexual contact with the teenager.
“All looked down for different reasons,” a police report said. Very disturbing fact: the directorate of youth protection (DPJ) even entrusted custody of the teenager to Véronie Campeau, who then pretended to be a “family friend”, according to a court document.
Véronie Campeau pleaded guilty Wednesday at the Montreal courthouse to charges of sexual contact with a minor under 16, invitation to sexual contact and sexual exploitation. The 41-year-old woman faces a significant prison sentence.
This is the second time this week that the Pointe-de-l’Île school service center has made headlines for disturbing cases of sexual exploitation of students. On Tuesday, a teacher at a primary school under the same center, Dominic Blanchette, admitted to having sexually assaulted five girls over five years1. There were, however, many warning signs.
In addition to Antoine-de-Saint-Exupéry school, Véronie Campeau worked at Félix-Leclerc school and Saint-Marcel school in Pointe-aux-Trembles in 2019, according to court documents. These three schools come under the Pointe-de-l’Île school service centre.
” [Véronie Campeau] was suspended from her duties as soon as we were informed that criminal charges had been filed against her, ”indicated to The Press the center’s spokesperson. The educator was charged in April 2020.
A first meeting
Sarah* was 13 in March 2011 when she went to Véronie Campeau’s office at Antoine-de-Saint-Exupéry school to ask the special educator for help. The date of this first meeting will later become their “birthday” as a “couple”, in the eyes of the accused.
Véronie Campeau, then 29 years old, took advantage of Sarah’s vulnerability to weave her predatory web and exploit her for years. One thing leading to another, Véronie Campeau won the confidence of the teenager, 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 from May 2011, including the first time in a park, then in a hotel in Pointe-aux-Trembles. The accused showed Sarah what it was like to “make love”. They had sex while a young child was in the bedroom.
” The day after, [Véronie] tells me that she is fulfilled by the situation,” said the victim in her statement to the police, filed in court.
Like “a couple”
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, according to the admitted facts.
“She attacks me several times during the weekend”, slices the victim in his statement. The same scenario repeated itself during the summer of 2011, when they saw each other every day. The accused even leaves her spouse.
Véronie always tells me that we are a couple and that we are in love and that she wants to marry me and have children. Many times, we go to sleep in small seedy motels.
Sarah, in her statement to the police
In March 2012, the accused put an end to her “relationship” with the teenager, then aged 14.
A trip to Cuba
Véronie Campeau and Sarah reunite however to form “officially a couple” in December 2012. In September 2013, when she is in fourth secondary, Sarah is “virtually” still with the special education teacher. They form a “real family”, according to the accused. They went together to Cuba during spring break in 2014.
Still according to her statement to the police, Sarah confides in May 2014 to a teacher from the Antoine-de-Saint-Exupéry school that she forms a “couple” with Véronie Campeau. However, the document does not specify whether the teacher informed the school administration.
Under the “pressure” of Véronie Campeau, Sarah “officially” moved into her home in 2014. In addition to being overwhelmed by work, school and household chores, Sarah is “very afraid” of the “aggressive” reactions of the child. ‘accused,’ she said in her statement.
In December 2014, Sarah ended her “relationship” with Véronie Campeau, after falling in love with a boy her age. But his ordeal does not end there. In January 2015, then in secondary five, the victim spent a month with a 23-year-old employee of the Antoine-de-Saint-Exupéry school. She tells him everything about her 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.
The DPJ entrusts it to its predator
Then, in May 2015, Sarah was placed by the DPJ with Véronie Campeau. An ambiguous relationship then set in for several years, until the victim, now an adult, cut ties for good in December 2018. She filed a complaint in 2019. In her statement to the police, she indicated that Véronie Campeau was then working at Félix-Leclerc primary school.
Sentencing submissions will take place later in the summer. The judge ordered a sexological evaluation and the production of a pre-sentence report. Me Karine Lagacé-Paquette represents the public ministry.
* Fictitious name to protect the victim’s identity
With the collaboration of Marie-Eve Morasse, The Press