Gatineau police say they contacted a woman on Thursday followingnoon who told The Press that his complaint once morest comedian Philippe Bond for sexual assault had not been taken seriously by a police officer in 2007.
“We encourage the victim to come and meet with us and we contacted her. We will follow up with her to see where she is and if she wants to file a complaint. If this is the case, we will obviously produce an event report and it will be transferred to our specialized sexual assault investigators, ”said Gatineau police spokesperson Renée-Anne St-Amant.
• Read also: Philippe Bond retires from public life
• Read also: “It will not happen in any way to a legal result”, believes Nicole Gibeault
• Read also: Sexual misconduct allegations: Philippe Bond dumped by Bell Media
The complainant told the daily that Bond had forced her to give him oral sex in the toilets of the Casino du Lac-Leamy hotel. Two weeks later, she decided to file a complaint, but the police officers met were mainly concerned, according to her, by the impact on the career of the comedian. So she left.
Another woman cited in this investigation said that she had suffered similar treatment when she wanted to denounce Philippe Bond to the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM).
Former head of the investigation into child prostitution at the Quebec police and professor of police techniques, Roger Ferland recalls that the police officer on the front line has the duty to transmit the file to the specialized investigators.
“We tell the patrol that when someone talks to him regarding sexual assault, you take a step back and call the investigators so as not to burn the file. »
Former detective sergeant Lorraine Leblanc, who worked for 15 years in the sex crimes investigation division of the SPVM, agrees.
“It’s not up to the police [en première ligne] to judge whether it is a sexual assault or not. »
The social status of the person targeted by the allegations must in no way influence the work of the police officer, adds Mr. Ferland.
“I hope no one does this anymore in 2022 and I hope that’s not what happened. »
However, the Philippe Bond case once once more highlights the difficulty for a victim of sexual crimes to denounce their attacker.
It sometimes takes weeks, months and even years to convince yourself to go and meet a police officer, says the executive director of the Center for Sexual Assault Victims of Montreal, Deborah Trent.
“You have to put yourself in the head of a victim, who has to go to a counter in a police station and has to speak to a stranger to tell him an intimate story for which he is probably judging himself. It takes mad courage. »
