Man to be sentenced in abduction
Girl, 15, taken by father and kept in crawl space to avoid police search
The mother of a 15-year-old girl abducted by her biological father in Montreal three years ago and kept in a crawl space while police searched for her described the ordeal as a nightmare in court on Tuesday.
While delivering a victim impact statement before Quebec Court Judge Nathalie Duchesneau at the Montreal courthouse, the mother said that years ago, her daughter received an autism diagnosis and has the mental capacity of an eight-year-old.
Duchesneau began hearing sentencing arguments Tuesday. The 47-year-old father pleaded guilty on Dec. 4 to taking a person under the age of 16 out of the possession of their parent and to another charge related to how he lied to the Montreal police while they searched for the girl over the course of two days in February 2021.
Prosecutor Jessica Drolet said the Crown will seek a 42-month prison term while defence lawyer Walter Stirling said he is seeking a sentence the father can serve in the community. Sentencing arguments will continue in December.
The man, whose name cannot be published because of a standard publication ban intended to protect the minor girl's identity, had been divorced from the victim's mother for years. The teen contacted him through social media after she became upset over being placed in youth protection out of concerns for her safety. The mother has sole custody of the girl.
On the afternoon of Feb. 19, 2021, the girl did not return to a youth protection centre after school and her social workers called 911.
A little more than two hours later, two Montreal police officers visited the father's home in the West Island to ask if he had seen her. According to a joint statement of facts filed in the case, the father told the police he did not know where she was.
Before 6 a.m. the next day, police officers returned and he changed his story, though he lied again. He said he had dropped her off at her centre at 2 p.m. the day before.
After police sent information to the media in the hopes of locating the girl, someone called 911 and reported seeing a girl at a home in Montreal that same day although the girl's hair had been dyed red.
When the police went to the home in Montreal where the woman had seen the girl, they were greeted by male relative who yelled at the officers and refused to let them inside. The officers could see the girl through the front door to the home. She appeared calm and let the officers in. The man who refused to let the police in was initially charged with the father, but that case was eventually dropped.
In the girl's statement to police she said her father left her at the home of the relative where she was ultimately found. While she was there, she was hidden in a crawl space in case the police showed up.
The girl estimated she spent two hours in the tiny space before she complained and her relative let her sleep on his couch.
She also said her relative mentioned the possibility of holding her for $75,000 in ransom.
On Tuesday, the mother said she is certain her ex-husband took their daughter in as revenge for the wife leaving him more than a dozen years ago.
“The whole time (he) knew where (she) was,” the mother said.