A chef guilty of sexually assaulting a sleeping student learned the hard way that blaming the victim and calling his crime “harmless” was not the best way to avoid prison. designated.
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“He didn’t do himself any favors at all [en témoignant]“It was nonsense, he said a lot of things without saying anything,” commented Judge Salvatore Mascia this Thursday at the Montreal courthouse, shortly before sentencing Vincenzo Mirra to one year in prison.
Mirra, a chef from the metropolis, failed in his attempt to receive house arrest for his sexual assault on a drunk and vulnerable young woman in 2016.
Fake “Good Samaritan”
That was because he happened to come across the victim at the time, whom he knew a little. The completely drunk young woman had lost her keys and was therefore unable to return home. Mirra said she wanted to help her and invited her to spend the night at his house.
“He presented himself as a good Samaritan to save a young woman without means,” the judge said.
However, when the victim woke up, the defendant was lying on top of her with his pants down. In a panic, the young woman, the age of the defendant's daughter, pushed him away and stormed away.
“My human dignity was stolen from me, I curled up crying, hyperventilating, shaking and screaming for what felt like an eternity,” the young woman commented in court.
Despite being found guilty of sexual assault, Mirra appears to have certain deficiencies in her understanding of the concept of consent. This is because, in his opinion, it was the victim who was behaving like a “temptress” and that he was the real victim.
Vincenzo Mirra, guilty of sexually assaulting a drunk young woman he allegedly helped, during his visit to the Montreal courthouse in June 2023. MICHAËL NGUYEN/LE JOURNAL DE MONTRÉAL/AGENCE QMI Michaël Nguyen / JdeM
Not “trivial”
He then praised his family values to a probation officer and said he didn't like women “with more curves.” He then criticized the delays in the case, even though he was responsible for them, and described the sexual assault as “harmless.”
“He was about to penetrate a sleeping woman, we have a victim in a very vulnerable state, he abused her trust… Do I really need to explain that this is serious?” the judge said.
In response to Mirra's request for leniency over the delays, the judge replied that the answer was “obvious.”
“No,” the judge said simply.
Therefore, Mirra was denied the opportunity to serve her sentence in the comfort of her own home. Instead, he has to get used to the strict conditions of a cell in which he has to stay for a year. And after his release, he must complete a two-year probation period during which he is prohibited from communicating with the victim.
She, who was not in court, had indicated that she was impatiently waiting for the proceedings to be concluded so that she could “move on”.
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