A Laval judge wanted to denounce the scourge of the sexual exploitation of vulnerable victims by sending to detention for three years a septuagenarian in fragile health who abused a 20-year-old mentally retarded.
“The defendant found the victim cute, she exuded a purity. Although 52 years separated them, he deliberately chose to take away this purity in order to satisfy his sexual instincts by ignoring the victim's inability to consent to such acts,” the judge denounced last week. Court of Quebec Serge Cimon, at the Laval courthouse.
In the fall of 2018, Jean-Guy Gagné, then 72, sexually exploited his roommate's daughter. He was the one who transported her when she visited her mother.
Over the course of the meetings, he gained the confidence of the 20-year-old woman, who has an intellectual disability. For two months, he repeatedly subjected her to repeated and "unwanted" touching.
Willful blindness
"He took advantage of the victim's vulnerability to try to satisfy himself sexually," the magistrate lamented.
Although she had the mental capacity of a child between the ages of 8 and 10, the accused found that her impairment "didn't seem so severe" and that she "didn't seem so cracked as that ".
Rather, Cimon J. saw it as "willful blindness." The accused also admitted having tried to coax and manipulate the victim, in particular by buying him jewelry.
He is also angry with the entourage of the victim, who encouraged her to denounce him. He confessed that he would have liked to "do more" with her, "but he didn't get the chance".
And even if he recognizes the gestures made, he still does not assume their seriousness. Since his arrest, the 75-year-old hasn't even shown a "stammering rehab."
Denounce the scourge
"The accused tends to trivialize the gestures committed, saying that he believed that she appreciated what he was doing to her and that she never expressed a refusal," noted the judge. At 75, the accused still does not know that a no or the absence of a no does not mean a yes. »
The accused hoped to avoid prison because of his advanced age and his precarious health, which sometimes forces him to move around in a wheelchair. But anxious to denounce "the scourge" of sexual exploitation of vulnerable people, Judge Cimon instead sentenced him to three years in prison.
And if the accused assures that his risk of recidivism is low due to recent erectile problems, the judge rather believes the opposite. Not only does he seem to have a still high libido, but he still tends to sexually objectify women's bodies.
WHAT JUDGE SERGE CIMON SAID
“Vengeance has no place in sentencing, but it should still reflect society’s reluctance to commit crimes of a sexual nature. »
“The accused expresses regrets, however, they are based more on the negative consequences he suffers, namely [the] judicial impact and [the] loss [of] the esteem of his relatives. Clearly, he has no sincere and real regrets for the actions committed. »
"He was always a ladies' man, who valued sex a lot. In recent years, he says he had a great void, a void that unfortunately [the victim] had the misfortune to fill, in spite of herself. »
"The accused deliberately chose to override the victim's intellectual incapacity to consent and took no particular steps to ascertain meaningful consent. »
– With Michael Nguyen
