A Montreal man is accused of sexually abusing a four-year-old girl at the daycare his wife ran swears it was an unfortunate combination of circumstances, even though his DNA was found in the child’s underwear.
“There was no opportunity to commit the acts described by the prosecution,” Me Benoit Demchuck, Hocine Attoui’s lawyer, said Friday morning at the Montreal courthouse.
In June 2021, the 65-year-old man was living in an apartment in Ahuntsic-Cartierville where there was a home daycare managed by his wife. He then allegedly sexually touched a four-year-old girl in the basement bathroom during her afternoon nap.
The next day, the child spoke to his parents about the actions of his guardian’s husband. They quickly called 911 to report the situation to authorities.
During interrogation by the SPVM, the girl claimed in English that Attoui touched her private parts 10 times and demanded sexual favors.
Investigators also managed to get their hands on the clothes the child was wearing at the time, just before they were washed. The defendant’s DNA was found in his panties.
Deny everything together
According to the defense, the DNA could have been there for a variety of reasons, as the child was in the same environment as the defendant.
“The DNA could have been found on the child’s hands and transferred to the child’s panties when he went to the toilet,” Mr. Demchuck gave as an example.
Hocine Attoui categorically insisted that he never went into the basement during his nap.
Rather, in his testimony, he claimed that he left home in the morning, then returned for distance training in the early afternoon and fell asleep by 4:30 p.m.
Not trustworthy
However, Attoui’s statement was “tailor-made to distance himself from the victim and from the daycare center,” emphasized Crown Prosecutor Me Jérôme Laflamme in his pleadings.
According to him, the fact that the defendant remembered every minute detail of the day in question when giving his testimony is “suspicious.” However, the defendant did not want to answer the prosecutor’s questions, so Judge Marie Kettlyne Ruben had to intervene.
“Instead of relying on a hypothesis, I suggest you rely on the evidence you have. The prosecution’s evidence allows only one conclusion: the guilt of Mr. Attoui,” concluded Mr. Laflamme.
Judge Ruben will announce her verdict next March.