Former figure skating coach Richard Gauthier used his position of authority to subject his victim to sexual acts to which she did not consent, according to the Crown. An analysis that the defense rejects.
Posted at 6:36 p.m.
After oral arguments in March, Judge Josée Bélanger asked the parties for clarification as to the concept of consent at the time of the alleged facts. She invited them to this end Friday afternoon at the Montreal courthouse.
Mr. Gauthier is charged with gross indecency, sexual assault and indecent assault on a male skater he coached every day in the early 1980s. Accused was in his early twenties.
The victim, 10 years younger than the coach, skated under his authority between the ages of 11 and 19. His identity is protected by the court.
“The concept of consent at the time was not the concept of consent that we know today,” said Crown Prosecutor M.e Amelie Rivard. If the court holds that the alleged acts were committed in 1984 and 1985, when the alleged victim was 14 years old, his consent “can legally be invoked as a means of defence” under the law of the time.
However, even at the time, “did not constitute consent for the complainant to submit or not to resist because of the exercise of authority” of the accused, recalled Mr.e Rivard. “What I am telling you is that there was none, consent. »
The acts alleged against the former trainer include having bathed naked with the victim, having taken showers in which they washed each other’s bodies, having slept naked in a spoon with the victim, having masturbated in the same bed and watching him masturbate.
According to the Crown, Mr. Gauthier used his position as a trainer to impose his actions on the victim, who was unable to consent and instead submitted to the conduct of the accused. ” The complainant […] said he was frozen, that he froze, that he was unable to react, ”argued Me Rivard.
The defense rejected this analysis and questioned the victim’s testimony. “Given that he mentions a repression of feelings, you can assume that his memories that he did not consent are unreliable,” Ms.e Giuseppe Battista.
“He was of the age to consent in 1984,” recalled Mr. Gauthier’s lawyer. And his consent was valid, he argued, “since the version of the accused does not reveal any exploitation of the balance of power between him and the complainant”.
Judge Bélanger is due to render her decision on January 25.
Today, the age of consent is 16, and a 14- or 15-year-old cannot consent to sexual activity except with a partner less than five years older (thus no more than 18 or 19 years old). In addition, a person in a position of authority or trust vis-à-vis a 16 or 17-year-old adolescent cannot have sexual contact with the latter.