An engineer from Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, a fan of threesomes, has just been sentenced to 18 months in prison for filming his conquests without their knowledge, under the pretext that he wanted to protect himself from the movement. #Me too.
• Also read: The police are looking for victims of a suspected sex offender
Matthieu Lefebvre, 40, was arrested two years ago and around fifteen charges of sexual harassment were subsequently brought against him. Initially, the police had discovered several potential victims, so the Sûreté du Québec’s Serial Crime Investigations Management Structure (GESC) was deployed. But during the trial, only two of them’s statements were accepted.
A portfolio
The sex offender first approached her in the summer of 2019 at his workplace in a supermarket. He said he could build a “portfolio” for her to get modeling contracts. When she arrived at his home, she noticed a steady light on a device in the bedroom. Lefebvre lied to him and implied that it was an alarm system.
However, this indicator light was actually that of a motion sensor camera that was recording automatically. The young woman, who finally accepted a few contacts after numerous rejected applications, was therefore filmed naked and without her knowledge. In addition, the civil engineer often offered to provide sexual services for payment.
Hidden in the ceiling
The young cashier only found out about the existence of these pictures in the fall of 2020, when Lefebvre was being investigated for another sexual offense. During a search of his apartment, investigators found an external server hidden in the basement ceiling. It contained images of sexual activity with multiple people. They also noted that the defendant was an avid fan of threesomes and regularly offered them to strangers online.
The complainant, a woman who had accepted such a proposal, learned that she had been filmed during the act without her knowledge. The pictures were even in circulation because Lefebvre had sent them to the third participant in this ménage à trois.
“I didn’t trust her,” Lefebvre wrote to the latter to justify the hidden camera.
“Tissue of Lies”
During his testimony, he claimed that the cameras were installed for his safety and to protect him from possible accusations related to the #MeToo denunciation movement.
“The defendant’s version is stitched together with white thread and rests not on a solid foundation but on a web of lies,” explains Judge Dannie Leblanc in her verdict that finds him guilty.
Lefebvre therefore received a suspended sentence of 18 months and 240 hours of community service for voyeurism, publishing intimate images and receiving paid sexual services. His name was also placed on the sex offenders’ register for a period of 10 years.
The Order of Engineers declined to comment on the specific case, but noted that the file could be submitted to the disciplinary board if a member is criminally accused.
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