Guilty of sexual assault, the ex-coach Bertrand Charest will have his sentence Friday

Photo archive
Bertrand Charest

Guilty

Dave Parent

Thursday, December 7, 2017 21:17

UPDATE
Thursday, December 7, 2017 21:17

Look at this article

The former ski coach Bertrand Charest, who was found guilty of 37 counts of sexual abuse of nine young skiers, will be sentenced this Friday morning at the palais de justice in Saint-Jérôme.

The Crown calls for 12 years in the penitentiary, while the defence suggests four to six years.

Having already served three years of preventive detention with for four years and 2 months, it could theoretically be that it kind of jail more quickly if the judge decides to impose a sentence of four years.

“A true predator “

This scenario is however unlikely, the judge Sylvain Lépine has not been kind to the place of Charest when he made his decision.

“(The accused) is a true predator, weaving her web carefully to attract young women, teenagers, and exert on them a relative in the ascending total “, had launched the court last June.

During performances on award on the 14th of last November, the lawyer for Charest, Mr. Antonio Cabral, had mentioned a number of mitigating factors which, according to him, played in favor of his client.

He pointed out that Bertrand Charest would not have committed similar crime in 1998, and he acted like a model citizen. It was also cited in the reports sexological claimed by the court, which reveal that the risk of recidivism by Charest are low or very low.

Non-violent Crime ?

“There is a difference between an individual that is expecting a girl in a park to violate it, and a coach close to his athletes that attaches to it, and that athletes develop feelings for him,” had also added a lawyer to explain that the crimes were not violent.

These remarks have reacted to the judge.

“What message it sends to young athletes and coaches, if I have to take this into account ? “questioned the judge.

On 14 November, Bertrand Charest addressed the court for the first time to apologize to his victims, without, however, admit the facts.

“I am very sorry you have to live this process as I would have liked you to avoid. I am deeply sorry for the wrongs you might have to be incurred of any nature whatsoever “, he started sobbing.

Bertrand Charest has brought the verdict of guilt on appeal.