The engineer guilty of sexual assault who had obtained absolution not to harm his career lost his job, and now seems to want to go into the field of law.

• To read also: He takes it out on a drunk friend: no criminal record for a sexual aggressor engineer

“The company decided to put an end to its employment relationship this morning during a phone call,” Canimex vice-president of human resources, Michel Goulet, told the Journal.

Simon Houle, 30, is the engineer who admitted to having sexually assaulted a friend during a drunken party while he was a student at the University of Quebec in Trois-Rivières in 2019. He had also photographed the private parts of his victim.

Accused of sexual assault and voyeurism, Houle had waited two years before pleading guilty.

For Judge Matthieu Poliquin, this was quite enough punishment, so that he did not deserve the 18 months in prison that the Crown was asking for. Especially since during his therapies, Houle had admitted to having had another victim in the past, which was seen by the judge as a sign of "transparency".

Put "outside"

“He is usually a person who helps and supports others, and not a person who attacks them, said the magistrate. His arrest, his indictment and the delay of more than two years to think about the consequences [...] are sufficiently dissuasive. »

The judge also explained that during these two years, his employer had put him "on the sidelines at work". Due to labor laws, the company could not do more.

“His employer refuses to allow him to participate in parties or office outings”, can we read in the decision indicating that Houle had been kept in telework despite the end of the sanitary measures.

The victim, for his part, suffered several devastating psychological consequences, which even led to hospitalization. This affected her school career, not to mention that she had to stop working for five months, causing her financial difficulties.

Certificate in law

But in order not to put a spoke in the wheels of the sexual aggressor, Judge Poliquin had decided that a conditional discharge on 3 years probation and a donation of $ 6,000 to an organization helping victims was a good idea.

“Going forward, if he cannot travel because of the presence of a criminal record, his job opportunities in engineering will be limited,” he said.

During court hearings, Houle said that if he wanted to stay an engineer, he could eventually change fields.

"He undertook, on a part-time basis, a certificate in law", indicates the judgment.

According to our information, the Crown is preparing to appeal the case.