The man who has already paralyzed the metro by spraying a passenger with cayenne pepper has this time received an indefinite sentence for having touched the buttocks of two young women, still in the public transport network.
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Neither a traditional sentence nor a sentence followed by a period of supervision would sufficiently protect society against the impulsive, aggressive and paranoid behavior of Émile Yombo, underlined Judge Yvan Poulin in sentencing him on Tuesday at the Montreal courthouse.
The 33-year-old man was sentenced to an indefinite term for sexual assault in addition to being declared a dangerous offender.
This automatically places him under the yoke of correctional services for life, Crown prosecutor Me Jean-Simon Larouche told the Journal.
He touches their buttocks
In the summer of 2020, Yombo touched the buttocks of two young women he did not know after following them.
He took the buttocks of the first in the escalator of the Bonaventure station after having placed himself behind her, hood on the head. Two days later, he touched another woman’s buttock after following her home from the Laurier metro station.
At that time, he had just been released from prison a few weeks ago. He resided at the Ogilvy Community Correctional Center and was under a long-term supervision order.
He had spent 45 months in prison after spraying cayenne pepper on four people, including employees of a Subway cafe and restaurant, a man in a park and a subway passenger.
This last event had also caused the shutdown of three lines of the network for 29 minutes. Damage was assessed at $23,200.
Her two most recent victims are still living with the consequences, she told the court. The first is always fearful of men in addition to experiencing stress and discomfort walking around alone. As for the second, she was traumatized by the event.
Unable to control himself
Yombo’s criminal record reveals that he spent a significant portion of his adult life in custody for violent crimes. He has been convicted more than 30 times.
Before receiving his sentence, he tried to convince the magistrate that he is no longer the same person and that he would be ready to take steps to change his life, but in vain.
“These remarks are more wishful thinking than a real desire or possibility of change,” Judge Poulin dropped.
The accused has a pattern of repeating the same behaviors, an inability to control his actions and he represents a significantly higher risk of recidivism than the average of other prisoners, it is underlined in the judgment.
He will have to spend a minimum of seven years in the penitentiary before he can ask to be evaluated by the Parole Board of Canada. If he fails to convince the commissioners that he deserves parole, the dangerous offender may be reassessed every two years, explained Me Larouche.