Former Parti Québécois legislator Harold LeBel was sentenced on Thursday to eight months in jail after being found guilty in November of sexually assaulting a woman at his condo in 2017.
Quebec Superior Court Justice Serge Francoeur accepted the joint sentencing recommendation from the prosecution and defence at the courthouse in Rimouski, Que., about 320 kilometres northeast of Quebec City.
Earlier, prosecutor Manon Gaudreault read a statement from the victim expressing sympathy for LeBel, who she said “will have to pay for his actions, criminal acts—serious and reprehensible, of course—but which do not in themselves define a person.”
“I have never felt so vulnerable in my entire life as that night in Rimouski,” said the woman, whose name is protected by a publication ban. “How are we supposed to react when a man over twice your weight assaults you? I was so scared.”…