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 accused found the victim cute, she gave off 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, “denounced last week the judge of the Court of Quebec Serge Cimon, at the Laval courthouse.
In the fall of 2018, Jean-Guy Gagné, then 72 years old, sexually exploited his lodger’s daughter. It was he who transported her when she visited her mother.
Over the course of the meetings, he gained the confidence of the 20-year-old woman, suffering from intellectual disability. For two months, he repeatedly subjected her to repeated and “unwanted” touching.
Willful blindness
“He took advantage of the vulnerability of the victim to try to satisfy himself sexually,” lamented the magistrate.
Although she had the mental capacity of a child between the ages of 8 and 10, the accused found that her disability “did not seem so severe” and that she “did not seem so cracked as that “.
Rather, Judge Cimon 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 that he had not had the chance”.
And even if he recognizes the gestures made, he still does not assume their seriousness. Since his arrest, the 75-year-old has not even shown a “stammering of rehabilitation”.
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 because of 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 regret, however, it is based more on the negative consequences he suffered, either [l’]legal impact and [la] loss [de l’]esteem of his relatives. Clearly, he has no sincere and real regrets for the actions committed. »
“He was always a ladies’ man, who placed a lot of importance on sexuality. In recent years, he says he has had a great emptiness, an emptiness that unfortunately [la victime] had the misfortune to fill, in spite of herself. »
“The defendant deliberately chose to override the victim’s intellectual incapacity to consent and took no particular steps to ensure valid consent. »
– With Michael Nguyen
Reference-www.journaldemontreal.com