A Beauce man will spend the next three and a half years in hiding for raping his own sister on the night of a family reunion. For the victim, the imprisonment of the attacker is his own release after five long years of trial.
• Also read: “He broke me”: Raped by her own brother, she no longer wants to be ashamed
Judge Frank D’Amours was harsh on Michael Veilleux as he read his verdict on the 42-month prison sentence he had imposed on the 35-year-old.
The judge insisted that a sister should always hope “hope for a brother to protect her and come to her aid” and lamented that Veilleux chose to steal a part of herself from her instead.
“Objective gravity is important. “The court does not accept in any way the version of the defendant who says he has no memory,” the judge stressed, recalling that the hotel’s surveillance footage made him walk with more of a sure step, “without ever staggering or even swaying.” “. , before deciding on a room with a single bed, “even if he’s with his sister,” and then easily unlocks the door.
Raped by her brother
The drama that shook the life of Myriam Veilleux happened on the night of March 10-11, 2018. It was a celebratory evening for the Veilleux family as they celebrated their father’s birthday in a restaurant and then in a bar celebrated. This is the last memory of the woman who wakes up in a hotel room the next day, half naked and covered in vomit.
Photo Pierre Paul Biron
Suspecting she had been assaulted, Ms Veilleux went to hospital where DNA samples confirmed it was her brother, her own blood, who had abused her.
Michaël Veilleux always advocated a “total blackout”, claiming he woke up in the bedroom but also had no recollection of the events. In a phone call she had with her brother on the morning of the drama, mentioned at the sentencing hearing, he was heard saying, “If she was raped, I hope it’s not me in there.”
“This appeal is very eloquent,” the judge said in his decision, delivered Thursday at the Saint-Joseph-de-Beauce courthouse, emphasizing the defendant’s detachment and lack of remorse in the face of the tragedy.
message to the victims
The 42-month sentence imposed is more in line with the proposal of the Crown Prosecutor Me Christian Gauthier, who had pleaded for six years in prison, than that of the defense. Michael Veilleux’s attorney believed that given the media coverage of the case “which had serious consequences for his life,” a community service pardon was sufficient.
Again, the judge applied a rigorous analysis, regretting that the defense’s proposal “focuses on the defendant while ignoring the consequences for the victim.”
“The publicity of the affair had no consequences for the defendants other than those that would normally flow from a case of this nature,” Judge D’Amours said, sending a clear message to victims, who often fall under the taboo surrounding sex crimes are suffocated.
“Victims of sexual assault do not have to remain silent.”
“Today I’m proud”
More than five years after the events, Myriam Veilleux can finally turn the pages of a part of this nightmare. For her, seeing her brother leaving the room in handcuffs will have been the culmination of a phase that she now wants to leave behind.
Photo Pierre Paul Biron
“I will have some after-effects of these five and a half years, but today I’m proud,” says the woman, who now only wishes for “happy moments”.
“I want to relive the moments I experienced before. I want to come back to Beauce and be able to experience beauty. […] I want to rebuild myself.”
A taboo that is difficult to overcome for the victims
When Myriam Veilleux chose to have her identity protection order lifted, she chose to reverse the burden of shame. Her brother attacked her and she was the one who had to hide? “Never again” chose the victim, who at the same time overcame the biggest taboos.
“You feel like you’re destroying the family. The burden is on your shoulders, because it is you who makes a complaint, it is you who consent to the identification and therefore to the identification of your family,” Myriam Veilleux explained to the Journal on the margins of the judgment of three and a his brother Michael imposed for half a year.
Despite this burden, Ms. Veilleux decided to keep going.
“I no longer wanted to protect and heal everyone around me at my expense while I was going under,” says the woman.
break free
That’s the most important thing to remember about this tragedy, say officials at CALACS Chaudière-Appalaches, the Center for Help and Combat against Sexual Assault.
In this hurricane that is turning all these lives upside down, sacrifice must come first.
“We encourage the person to be at the center of their journey and to think of themselves. The family will also have a journey and sometimes it is difficult to let everything live together, but the focus must be on the victim because it is the one who has experienced the aggression and it is she who bears the effects. explains Joany Gauvin-Lavoie, the organization’s clinical coordinator.
And we have to talk, as Judge Frank D’Amours reminded us of in his decision. Victims have to make their own decisions, even if it’s not about filing a criminal complaint. “Free yourself,” emphasize the speakers.
“The court case is not a mandatory step,” recalls CALACS Chaudière-Appalaches Director General Marie-Pier Brousseau. “The first step, talking to someone you trust, allows you to start rebuilding.”
Marie-Pier Brousseau, Executive Director of CALACS Chaudière-Appalaches CALACS CA website
hundreds of posts
Myriam Veilleux realized when her face and that of her brother made headlines, then she received “at least a hundred messages” on social media.
Very often victims of sexual assault within the family who never dared to speak.
“I had very tough statements. People who told me that the family told them not to talk because it would affect the family business; “A man who was raped by his own brother for years and whom the family still doesn’t want to believe,” admits Myriam Veilleux, who has now fully recognized the taboo of this scourge.
Without becoming the face of these victims of unspeakable family dramas, she at least hopes her story will help some of them.
“If Ms Veilleux’s story and courageous testimony allows a single person to break free and speak, that’s already a big step forward,” applaud CALACS officials, who recall that in 8 cases out of 10 the victim knows his attacker.
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