Threatening someone on social media can have serious legal consequences. A man learned this the hard way after he threatened to kill La Presse columnist Patrick Lagacé. The perpetrator will now draw a criminal record.
Posted at 2:15 p.m
“You better shut up, bitch. Do you understand ? Took me apart alive, my sacrament. »
Patrick Stephenson sent these threats to Patrick Lagacé on Facebook on January 5, 2022 for an unknown reason.
A few weeks later, accused of making threats, Patrick Stephenson admitted his guilt outside the Montreal courthouse on February 20. The 46-year-old Ontarian was then “heavily drunk” and suffered from depression, said the Crown Prosecutor. He’s been sober for four months now.
Judge Pierre Dupras followed the parties’ joint proposal and sentenced Patrick Stephenson to a suspended sentence (suspended sentence) and 12 months probation, during which he must do 60 hours of community service. This gives him a criminal record.
Patrick Lagacé, a veteran journalist who also hosts programs on 98.5 FM and Télé-Québec, has often been the target of bitter netizens, especially since the pandemic began.
In February 2022, Pascal Perrault, a 49-year-old resident of Boisbriand, was sentenced to a suspended sentence and 18 months’ probation for threatening Patrick Lagacé on social media in the summer of 2021.