A white male who sexually abused two teenagers over the course of a summer after he met them at a park in the Rosemont-La-Petite-Patrie borough was sentenced at the Montreal courthouse on Thursday to a 10-year prison term.
Quebec Court Judge Jean-Jacques Gagné agreed with the common suggestion made by prosecutor Laurence-Fanny L’Estage and defense lawyer Alexander Grey after hearing the disturbing details of how Jonathan Bélair, now 37, ruined the lives of the two victims. They were 14 years old at the time and below the age of consent, which is 16 in Canada. Bélair was 34 when he met the teens.
L’Estage said that if Bélair had a trial — and was found guilty of the charges he pleaded guilty to in July, including sexual assault with a weapon or causing bodily harm — she would have asked for a stricter sentence “of 12 years or maybe even 14 years.”
The names of the victims cannot be published because of a standard court-ordered publication ban.
Both of the victims were born as girls and identified as boys when they met Bélair. The victims were also in a relationship together when the pedophile began abusing them.
One of the victims, who is 18 now, delivered a victim-impact statement describing how, three years after meeting Bélair, many aspects of her life have been affected by what happened.
She said she has attempted suicide multiple times, suffers from depression, has difficulty concentrating at school and at work and was placed in youth protection.
“It wasn’t like a leak of water. It was really like a flood,” the teen said of the effect the abuse has had on her life. “It affected my family enormously and my relationships with my friends and family, how I was perceived. I have a lot of difficulty just staying alive.”
The victim said that while she is a student now she sometimes had difficulty going to school.
“My first sexual experience was a rape, with him (in a park). It wasn’t gentle and it wasn’t with my consent,” she said, adding she consumed a lot of drugs with Bélair. “I can’t just erase it. I can’t put it aside and say it’s OK. This man destroyed me.”
The other victim said she is now socially isolated, has overdosed since the abuse and that her relationship with her mother was ruptured.
“I placed my trust in (Bélair) and he broke it,” the victim said. “I began to question my value.”
“It’s like I have disappeared. He left me with emotional and physical scars that I still have today.”
When Bélair pleaded guilty on July 31, also to charges of drug trafficking, the court was told of how he first met the 14-year-olds during the summer of 2021 at Parc Père-Marquette in Rosemont-La-Petite-Patrie.
He consumed cocaine with them and later began having sex with one of them. He then convinced the teens that they should all have sex together and he became more violent as he revealed he was into sado-masochistic acts.
During one very violent night, Bélair struck one of the victims about 20 times and burned the teen with a lighter. He also struck the other victim with branches and choked her with both of his hands.
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