Erison Jimenez Gomez pleaded guilty Friday to charges of sexual interference, obtaining sexual services for hire and drug trafficking.
Léa* contacted the accused on the Snapchat application in June 2023. He then introduced himself under the pseudonym Éric Loop.
The teenager agrees to have sex with him in exchange for a vape. It is also determined that she has a relationship with the friend of the accused for the sum of 50 dollars.
They therefore meet near Léa’s home. The accused takes no steps to verify whether she is of the age of consent. At this time, Gomez is 23 years old.
On the way, the accused stopped at a convenience store to buy a vaping device and “pods» iced mint flavor. Once at the apartment, Léa has sexual relations with the accused’s friend.
Then, she is lying on the bed and she feels the accused’s hand on her thigh. She is “in shock,” but says nothing. The accused puts on a condom before penetration.
The duo will then take the victim back to the same place where they came to pick them up. Léa never gets back the promised sum of 50 dollars.
Another vape
At the start of the school year, in September, the teenager contacted Éric Loop again on Snapchat. She never knew his true identity.
She asks him for another vaper, as she has never been paid by the accomplice for the sexual encounter in June.
Gomez comes to pick up Léa near her school and learns that she is a minor. He goes to a convenience store to buy her a vaping device. He chats with her in the car, but gets scared when he sees a police car. So he takes her back to school.
A friend of Léa takes a photo of the accused’s car, as she is worried. It is a blue Nissan vehicle.
The victim filed a complaint with the police on November 1. She recounts the events of June and September. The suspect was not identified at this time, however, as Léa only knew him under the name Éric Loop. Steps have been taken with the Snapchat application to obtain more information about the user.
Fugue
In the fall, the teenager was housed in a youth center and obtained permission to go out to her mother’s house on weekends. On November 25, Léa ran away. She uses her mother’s cell phone to contact Éric Loop, who comes to pick her up during the night.
Two days later, the Snapchat application gave several information concerning the accused’s account to Quebec police investigators, including an email address in the accused’s name.
After several investigative techniques, the police identified the suspect and confirmed that he owned a blue Nissan.
Police officers went to Gomez’s home on November 27, in Quebec. There is no trace of the runaway teenager.
The same day at the end of the day, a witness called 9-1-1; he mentions seeing a child screaming and crying through an apartment window. She said, “Please, call the police.” She seemed scared.
The apartment is Gomez’s, visited earlier in the day. The police went there and discovered the teenager alone, very intoxicated, she was screaming and crying.
The accused was arrested on November 30.
Drugs and rape
During the three days spent with the accused, Léa said she had full sexual intercourse with the accused six or eight times.
Gomez forced her to do things she didn’t want to, like giving blowjobs. The defendant handcuffed her on at least two occasions. He directed all the sexual positions and acts.
Gomez gave Léa several cannabis joints, as well as occasional cocaine. It was the first time the teenager had used the drug.
During sexual assault, the victim describes herself as “too frozen” to react or speak. Gomez also insisted that Léa shave all the hair on his body, because he didn’t like it.
During the three days on the run, Léa saw an unidentified woman, the accused’s daughter aged around six years old, as well as a friend who was using drugs with them.
Léa also admits that she was hidden in a wardrobe at the time of the first visit by the police.
Erison Jimenez Gomez is sentenced to five years in prison for assaulting Léa on several occasions. He will be placed on the sex offenders register for a period of 20 years.
The sentence was proposed jointly by the parties.
Marked by attacks
The teenager first had to read a letter before Judge Julie Roy on Friday at the Quebec courthouse, she was accompanied by a service dog. However, she changed her mind when she saw Gomez in the dock.
The prosecutor, Me Mélanie Tremblay, read it. “At night, I have nightmares, I wake up scared,” said the victim.
She says she became disorganized during an outing in the city with her family because she thought she had seen the accused, even though she knows very well that he is in prison.
Léa’s mother also sent a few words to Judge Roy, in a letter. She calls Gomez “the dream breaker.”
“It will not be easy to erase the memory of these three days in November 2023. I remain hopeful that her wounds will eventually subside,” writes the mother, who helps her daughter through regular panic attacks.
She hopes to experience a future “where adults act as responsible adults towards young people”.
*Fictitious name: the victim’s identity is protected by a publication ban.
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