An ex-political organizer could avoid jail

Photo Le Journal de Montréal, Martin Alarie
Gilles Cloutier, guilty

Éric Thibault

Thursday, February 8, 2018 23:19

UPDATE
Thursday, February 8, 2018 23:19

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Guilty of sexual abuse and acts of violence on two minor, a witness deposed to the Charbonneau commission could serve his sentence of one year imprisonment at home rather than in prison.

The former political organizer Gilles Cloutier will be sentenced next Tuesday after they have seen the prosecutors of the prosecution and the defence to suggest jointly to the judge Maria Albanese to impose 12 months ‘imprisonment” at home “.

“He is a man of 77 years who has significant health problems,” argued his lawyer, Simon Dolci, at the palais de justice in Saint-Jérôme.

The criminal defence lawyer added that his client is no longer the “star” who had testified before the Charbonneau commission of “wheeling and dealing” between the private sector and the municipal world, in which he was involved.

“Today, it is a man tired, exhausted,” according to I Dolci.

Chores and punishments

It is, moreover, after seeing Cloutier to testify on tv that his two victims have decided to report it to the police, in the spring of 2013.

The two women, whose identity must be preserved, lived in the entourage of Cloutier at the time where they were subject to its abuse, there is a period of forty years. They were aged 8 to 12 years of age at the time of the offences.

Both have been victims of physical assault, while Cloutier was of the household chores and punishments cruel.

To knees

It forced them, in particular to a kneeling for hours, in the middle of the night, in addition to giving them slaps or kicks.

One of the victims was also sexually abused, who recounted in court that Cloutier had coated the genitals of cream to the beard with his hand. A smell that she has “never forgotten,” she testified.

“I lived in hell for five years because of Gilles Cloutier. He played with me and let off steam at me. The pain, the fear… I was just anxious for it to end. The award that will will never be satisfactory enough for me, ” said one of them to the judge last Wednesday.

-With the collaboration of Christian Plouffe

►The sentence that will be imposed on Gilles Cloutier next week will necessarily include the registration of the septuagenarian to the national sex offender Registry.