The accused was accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl in 2016 when he was 19 years old.
The court affirmed that it could not reject the accused’s version of denial while the complainant’s testimony “suffered from a lack of reliability, in particular due to imprecise and inaccurate memories” and the contradictions it contained.
“The acquittal does not mean that the court does not believe Madam, that she lied or that she was not the victim of a sexual assault, it simply means that the prosecutor did not acquit himself of its heavy burden of proving it beyond all reasonable doubt,” launched Judge Matthieu Poliquin.
The two individuals allegedly met on social networks during the period when the accused played hockey for the Shawinigan Cataractes.
In her version summarized by the court, the complainant claimed that on the evening of March 19, 2016, she and the accused left the bar where they were to walk. Gabriel Gagné then allegedly kissed her, but she quickly expressed her disagreement.
He then allegedly dragged her towards an alley where the attack took place until the young girl was able to escape.
In 2016, she allegedly confided about the assault to her school nurse. The events were denounced five years later by the complainant.
The accused, for his part, denied the sexual assault. He would have confirmed having met the complainant on social networks and having had a certain interest in her. He allegedly claimed to have kissed her in a bar, but not the one mentioned by the complainant.
Gabriel Gagné assured that he never went to this establishment and never sexually assaulted her.
In his judgment, judge Matthieu Poliquin affirms that he could not reject the version of Gagné, who aligned himself with the Cataractes between December 2015 and spring 2016.
He called her testimony consistent and noted that it contained “several assertions not contradicted by the evidence.”
The court considers that the cross-examination of Gabriel Gagné did not make it possible to shake his statements on the fact that he had never gone to the bar identified by the complainant and that he would never have gone out alone with the teammate identified by the young girl.
“The court considers that it has no element allowing it to completely rule out Mr. Gagné’s denial”
— Matthieu Poliquin, judge of the Court of Quebec
Another element filed by the defense left a doubt in the mind of the court and affects “the plausibility of Madam’s story”. On the day of the alleged events, the weather forecast showed a temperature varying between -8 and -11 degrees Celsius.
The judge noted the fact that she allegedly left the bar without a coat to undertake a “slow walk” with no destination and that she remained outside for almost 30 minutes. For the court, this defies “reason, common sense and logic”.
The judge also raised inaccuracies such as the fact that she was not able to “specify the position” she was in when she was sexually assaulted on the steps.
“This example demonstrates a vague and uncertain memory of a central aspect of the sexual assault, which affects the reliability of his account,” he said.
Several contradictions were also identified by the Court in relation to the nurse’s testimony.
For Judge Poliquin, the lack of consistency and the contradictions affected the reliability of the complainant, even calling into question the fidelity of her memory and the accuracy of her testimony.
“Even if she appeared to be a sincere and credible person, her account of events, the only proof of the sexual assault, is not reliable or precise enough to constitute proof beyond a reasonable doubt,” the judge said.
Gabriel Gagné and his lawyer did not wish to comment on the decision.
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