(Quebec) The complainant in the trial for sexual assault of Harold LeBel explained Wednesday that she had waited almost three years before filing a complaint, because she was afraid to denounce an MP with “a great reputation” and who was loved by all.
Posted at 12:26 p.m.
“I was afraid that it was me who was living the consequences of this case,” said the complainant, who is prohibited by court order from being identified. “He had a great reputation, everyone was friends with him. »
The young woman finally changed her mind after the arrest of André Boisclair in May 2020. The former leader of the Parti Québécois has since been convicted of sexual assault and is serving a two-year prison sentence.
“It really marked me. Because in political circles there was a lot of hearsay about André Boisclair. It fascinated me to see that it came out as a big surprise when people were probably aware, ”said the complainant at the Rimouski courthouse.
She says she began to wonder if other people might be victimized by Harold LeBel if she remained silent. The Boisclair affair also made him realize that it was possible to file a complaint for sexual assault while remaining anonymous to the general public.
“I didn’t want to experience a media storm around that, that my photo was there, that my name was there, to hurt my parents. I thought it was unnecessary trouble. I wanted to preserve my parents,” she said on the third day of the trial.
She finally decided to press charges in July 2020 and Mr. LeBel was arrested on December 15.
On Tuesday, the complainant recounted the “endless night” that she says she suffered in October 2017 at the hands of the former Parti Québécois deputy. She was then in Rimouski for work and had been accommodated, with a colleague, at M LeBel.
She told how the 60-year-old, decades her senior, suddenly tried to kiss her, then undid her bra despite her protests. Then during the night Mr. LeBel allegedly came to sleep with her in a sofa bed, where she says she was hit in the buttocks and anus. She says she was immobile, paralyzed for long hours that seemed to her to last an eternity.
A letter filed in evidence
A few months before the arrest of André Boisclair, which served as a trigger according to the complainant, and several months before filing a complaint, she had decided to write to the accused.
“I immediately thought that you were a good guy, sensitive and caring,” she begins in an email dated February 21, 2020, which was read in court. “I got the impression that you had a sincere and selfless concern for me. »
Then, this night of October 2017 was, according to her, a “great break”. “I remember every minute. »
She tells the man that that night she was scared of him and froze when he started touching her in bed. “I don’t know if you thought I was asleep,” she wrote. “I understood that this was the reaction of many girls when they are victims of sexual assault. »
The man responded the next day, February 22, 2020, apologizing profusely. “I remember waking up next to you wondering what I was doing there,” LeBel replied in an email read to the court. “I don’t remember any of that. »
“That’s not me. I hope one day to become your friend again, ”also writes the one who would have consumed three or four gin and tonics that evening, according to the testimony of the complainant, which will continue on Wednesday during cross-examination.
The 14 jurors – 10 women and 4 men – will have to decide if Harold LeBel is guilty of sexual assault at the end of this trial scheduled for two to three weeks. Mr. LeBel pleaded not guilty.
Harold LeBel was arrested on December 15, 2020 by police officers from the Sûreté du Québec. The man elected for the first time in 2014 in the riding of Rimouski, then re-elected in 2018, was quickly excluded from the Parti Québécois for at least the duration of the legal process. He decided not to run again in the last elections.