A suspected sex offender who violently assaulted two domestic workers at gunpoint pleaded not guilty at the start of his jury trial on Tuesday, despite confessing to police.
“As part of the investigation, Jean-Pierre Bellemare also wrote a letter of apology to the victims,” said Me Patrick Lafrenière of the Crown during his opening remarks at the Montreal courthouse this morning.
However, minutes earlier, Bellemare, 56, twice reiterated “not guilty” to each of the armed sexual assault charges he faced in connection with events in July 2018.
Masked and armed
In the basement of the building that day were two workers from a temporary shelter whose vocation is to help inmates who have been released from prison reintegrate into society. At one point, however, they heard a door slam, Me Lafrenière said.
The two women then heard footsteps and suddenly a hooded and armed man entered their premises.
“The person will close the door and in turn will sexually assault each of the complainants,” the Crown said. And as if that wasn’t heinous enough, he’ll then force one victim to look him in the eye and spray him with cayenne pepper, and then do the same to the second accuser.
Bellemare then took on the heels, according to the indictment theory presented to the jury.
Betrayed by his DNA
However, if Bellemare committed the sexual assaults “in English with an Italian accent,” possibly to cover the tracks, investigators used science to identify it.
After biological analysis, the suspect’s DNA allowed Bellemare to be identified.
And according to a court witness, Bellemare was known to have stayed there in the past, which means he was already in prison.
Struck by the Sûreté du Québec, Bellemare would have confessed to anything. However, he pleaded not guilty this morning, leaving the two victims to give a full account of the ordeal they endured before a full jury panel.
Bellemare is defending itself, but a lawyer has been hired to cross-examine the complainants.
The trial, presided over by Judge Daniel Royer, is scheduled to last a month.
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