25 years in penitentiary | Record sentence for “Tinder rapist”

The most severe sentence for Quebec’s worst serial rapist: Samuel Moderie, aka the “Tinder rapist”, was sentenced to 25 years in penitentiary for having drugged and sexually assaulted around ten women. A record sentence which echoes the Pélicot affair which left its mark last year.

“It’s a historic sentence,” commented a victim of the sexual predator in a press scrum on Wednesday. What the female victims and I experienced should never happen. No one should experience this: being drugged and having our trust taken advantage of. It is a relief that we are finally recognizing that there is permanent damage to the victims. »

In front of a room full of victims, the 30-year-old predator seemed to welcome this unprecedented sentence with almost indifference. He even sometimes had his eyes half-closed during the hearing.

Thirteen victims. A number that strikes the imagination.

Samuel Moderie gave these women their worst nightmare. Sadistic, insatiable, deviant: he drugged his prey, often after an online encounter. Then he used them as a sex toy.

His modus operandi was as well practiced as it was terrifying. He had “established chemical submission as a system,” said Judge Pierre Dupras. The latter also insisted on the “extraordinary dangers” of this form of coercion.

The expression “chemical submission” has become anchored in the imagination since the highly publicized trial last fall in France of Dominique Pelicot, this man who drugged his wife without her knowledge for years, to allow dozens strangers to rape her.

Like Gisèle Pelicot, most of Samuel Moderie’s victims have no memory of the sexual abuse they suffered for many hours. The evidence was mainly based on the videos and photos kept by Moderie. Because the sexual predator remembered his crimes.

“Today is the first time we learned what happened to us, because we are still in nothingness,” said a victim after the judgment.

In these unbearable images, unconscious women are repeatedly sexually assaulted. Proof that Moderie abused women over long periods of time: on the videos, the victims always appeared inert, but in different outfits, a sign that the attacker took the time to change their clothes while they were unconscious.

Samuel Moderie took particular pleasure in humiliating his victims. He also urinated on the faces of several of them during the sexual assaults. He also placed self-locking ties (commonly called “tie-wraps”) on the breasts of his victims, to the point of turning them purple.

The list of his atrocities is long and unbearable.

One of the victims, a single mother, was unconscious for 36 hours. Her three children were left to fend for themselves throughout this time. Same scenario for a victim, mother of a child with a disability. Even today, she is haunted by this question: Did he see everything?

Another woman says she came close to death. She was just recovering from an operation where she lost a lot of blood. That didn’t stop Samuel Moderie from drugging and abusing her. “I might not have survived that evening and I was very scared,” she confided.

Two of the victims were never identified by the police.

Victims marked for life

For all these women, the consequences are very real. Several victims told the Court that they still felt “shame”, even though they had nothing to reproach themselves for, the judge underlined. The magistrate wanted to thank the victims for their “necessary” speaking out.

Experts have painted a dark portrait of Samuel Moderie. He is described as a voyeur and sexual sadist at high risk of reoffending.

He had already been sentenced to two years in prison in 2018 for armed sexual assault and voyeurism of a woman. He committed his serial rapes as soon as he was released from prison.

Judge Dupras retained the tragic death of Samuel Moderie’s son as the only mitigating factor. Otherwise, the aggravating factors are preponderant: number of victims, chemical submission, colossal consequences on the victims, predation, great violence, etc.

The defense lawyer, Mr.^e Robert Bellefeuille, demanded 15 years in the penitentiary. This suggestion was rejected by the judge, who instead adopted the recommendation of 25 years from the Crown prosecutor, Ms.^e Jérôme Laflamme. This is an unprecedented sentence for sexual crimes in the recent history of Quebec.

“The Prosecution is particularly proud that the judge noted the courage of the plaintiffs who testified about the consequences they suffered. The Prosecution thanks them and is very proud of them,” commented M^e Laflamme, while emphasizing the “colossal” work of investigators from the City of Montreal Police Department.

At the end of his sentence, Samuel Moderie will be subject to increased supervision for 10 years, since he has been declared a long-term offender.