Ex-teacher denies sexually assaulting underage girl

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This article was published 09/09/2018 (2300 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A former Lorette elementary school teacher has pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting an underage girl.

Remi Dallaire entered the not-guilty pleas in court Monday at the beginning of his Court of Queen’s Bench trial as he defends himself against allegations that he repeatedly sexually assaulted a girl who was in Grade 3 during June and July of 2016. He also pleaded not guilty to charges of touching a person under 16 for a sexual purpose, inviting sexual touching and making sexually explicit material available.

The girl’s mother testified in court Monday, saying her daughter told her on July 13, 2016, that Remi had touched her inappropriately. The family had known Dallaire for about six weeks, she said, and her daughter would often travel to and from school with Dallaire. The girl’s mother said she noticed her daughter seemed to get along with Dallaire, and she allowed her daughter to spend more time with him while she was at work, including sleepovers at his apartment and outings to the movies and the mall.

“He was basically a role model, somewhat of a father figure,” she testified.

She testified her daughter seemed afraid to tell her about Dallaire’s alleged behaviour, and she confronted him about it right after her daughter told her.

“I was really shocked at first,” she said.

“I wanted to beat the s— out of him.”

After she confronted Dallaire, the mother said she phoned her family and then police. She testified she received a text message from Dallaire in which he said he wanted to talk about why her daughter may have made the allegations, and if she didn’t want to talk to him, he suggested he would call Child and Family Services and have the mother’s two children taken out of her care.

Hundreds of text messages between the mother and Dallaire were filed in court. Crown prosecutor Danielle Simard pointed to some of them as evidence that Dallaire was apparently asking for the mother to send her daughter over to his apartment, including to wake him up from a nap. Defence lawyer Matt Gould later pointed to texts wherein it appeared the mother was asking for Dallaire’s help looking after her daughter.

During cross-examination, the defence questioned the mother’s parenting, pointed to her use of several medications for various medical conditions, including a mood stabilizer drug, and suggested she led her daughter to come forward with false allegations because she was upset that Dallaire had told her he was not ready for a romantic relationship.

“Did you ever use your children to get closer to Mr. Dallaire?” Gould asked.

“No,” the mother said.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay