Sarnia man’s sexual assault sentencing abruptly adjourned after dad speaks to judge

A sentencing hearing Friday for a Sarnia man found guilty at trial of sexual assault and chocking took an unexpected turn before the lawyers had a chance to argue what they think his sentence should be.

Zakri Vaillancourt, 25, pleaded not guilty to four charges at the start of a five-day trial held earlier this year, but was found guilty in June by Superior Court Justice Russell Raikes of two of them: sexual assault and attempting to choke with intent to enable him to commit a sexual assault. The case was adjourned to Friday to obtain a pre-sentence report.

But there may be an issue with the report, at least according to Vaillancourt’s father. Dan Gauthier, granted permission to speak directly to Raikes from the lawyers’ table, started talking about his son, the woman he was found guilty of sexually assaulting, and held up a pair of letters he wanted the judge to read.

He didn’t get into much detail, but this appeared to come as a surprise to his son’s lawyer, Leah Gensey, so Raikes gave her five minutes to discuss the issue in private with her client and his family. Five minutes turned into more than 30, after which Gensey asked for the case to be adjourned so she could dig deeper into the topic.

Raikes granted her request. Now he, both lawyers and Vaillancourt will return to court next week for an update and to decide if a hearing will be required on this unexpected development.

Due to Friday’s surprise adjournment, the lawyers never did get to their sentencing arguments. However, afterward Gensey told The Observer she was planning to ask for an 18-month conditional sentence – a combination of house arrest and a curfew – and assistant Crown attorney Meaghan Jones said she was going to argue for three years in prison.

It’s unclear what impact the new information or a potential hearing will have on those plans as of Friday.

Before the abrupt adjournment, Jones read a statement the woman, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, wrote about how the sexual assault has affected her. During the ensuing years – the attack took place five years ago in a car in a Sarnia conservation area – she’s struggled with a long list of physical and mental-health issues including panic attacks, night terrors, appetite loss and depression.

Many times she’s woken up screaming and gasping for air in fear she was being choked again.

“This is something that’s going to stick with me for the rest of my life,” she wrote.

At trial, the woman testified she consented to one sexual act in the car, but added Vaillancourt was very aggressive and he forced one unwanted act on her and attempted to do another. He also put both of his hands around her neck at one point, she testified.

“It hurts. She could barely breathe. She felt dizzy,” Raikes recalled in his 12-page decision released in June.

Vaillancourt, a former factory worker, denied this happened. But after hearing his testimony, the judge found him to be evasive, defensive and argumentative while giving evidence that wasn’t credible or reliable because it was rife with inconsistencies.

“Simply put, I do not believe his version of what happened,” he said at the time.

Raikes pointed out there were also inconsistencies in the woman’s evidence, but on peripheral matters. She was consistent on what happened, including what each of them did and how the sexual activity occurred, he said.

This made her a credible witness.

“I believe her,” he wrote.

Despite the two convictions, Vaillancourt was found not guilty of two additional charges of assault and mischief worth less than $5,000 linked to an alleged incident between the pair the following morning at a local coffee shop.

Vaillancourt, the woman, the coffee shop manager and a Sarnia police officer testified during the scattered five-day trial that started in late February and wrapped up in late April.

Around the same time but in an unrelated case, Vaillancourt accused guilty of impaired driving linked to an incident where he crashed into a parked car in downtown Sarnia and fled on foot.

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