Belgian man gets 20 months for falling in love with a 13 year old Montreal girl

Vincent Raphael Duval a resident of the city of Liège (Belgium) was arrested in Montreal (Quebec, Canada) last saturday june 21st 2008. Duval pleaded guilty on friday june 27th to six accusations of sexual interference, sexual touching, kidnapping and three counts of luring with a computer involving a 13 year old girl. A sentencing hearing was held on july 3rd. However, no decision on sentencing was made. He remained in prison untill his next hearing, on July 24th. At his final hearing, he received a 20 month jail sentence in addition to the time already served. 

At the July 24th sentencing hearing, Crown prosecutor Nathalie fafard, told the presiding judge, Jean-Pierre Bonin, that this was a unique situation that would set a precedent in Canada, which should be an opportunity to be a deterent for Canadians and travellors to Canada and to prevent future acts of this sort in Canada. She asked the judge for a 5 year prison sentence. Duval's lawyer, Me Jeffrey Boro had proposed a 12 to 18 months sentence. Vincent Raphael Duval, had plead gilty but still claimed that he is not a pedophile, insisting that no sexual relations have taken place. Reading documents available on the Internet, it would seem that any contact with a minor of a sexual nature is contrary to the Criminal Code of Canada and, when the age of the youth is below the minimum set in the act at 14 years old and the absence of clear knowledge of the age may not be invoked as a defence. The judge, considering all the facts, set the sentence at 20 months.

The girl, which he met on an internet dating site in October 2007, had originally claimed to being 26 years old, but had later confessed to him that she was only 13. However at this point, Duval did not stop contacts with her, even after the girl's parents called him and told him to cease and decist. The parents discovered the relation after the girl received a cell phone for Chrismass and started calling Belgium, resulting in a 525$ phone bill.

On friday June 20th, the girl's parents alerted the local police when she didn't return home after school. Police officers found evidence on the girl's computer that she had been chatting online with a man for months. "There were several conversations that took place between the two of them," said Montreal police Const. Yannick Ouimet in an phone interview with the Canadian Press noting the officers found thousands of pages of online chats, as many as 3000 according to some accounts. The police officers where able to identify the man and were also able to find his picture from an online profile. Police forces in Belgium where then involved, soon after they where able to search the computer of Duval in Liège. Pedophile acts are taken very seriously in Belgium, where the Dutroux Affair brought attention to this sordid crime in the 90's and more recently in 2004 with the trial of Marc Dutroux.

With the pictures of Duval and the girl in hand, a search was started in local hotels and motels. Several reports where broadcasted on local news radio and television, alerting the public. Around 3h30(am), they found the girl with Duval at a hotel on St-Hubert street near Montreal's bus terminal (Berri-UQAM Metro station). A hotel employee recognised them on the pictures that where shown by investigators. While there are a few nice hotels in the area, this area is not known for the quality of it's hotels, better known by local residents to be often frequented by tourists on a tight budget, drug dealers and prostitutes. While it does not appears, from recent reports, that sexual relations had taken place, there had been physical contacts and it appears they where found in the same bed. As it is customary in such situations in Quebec, few details are given to protect the youth involved. Duval was arrested on the scene and did plead guilty, as mentionned in the introduction, on friday june 27th to six accusations of sexual interference, sexual touching, kidnapping and three counts of luring with a computer involving a 13 year old girl.

Duval and the girl where planning to run away to Ontario to live in an Amish community where they believed that a man of his age could live with such a young girl. They had considered other countries, but as the girl did not have a passport, this apparently prooved too difficult for them. 

Sources:

http://www.lesoir.be/actualite/monde/un-belge-pedophile-arrete-au-2008-06-21-608563.shtml

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/girl_lured

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

http://www.radio-canada.ca/regions/Montreal/2008/07/24/003-Duval-belge-prison.shtml?ref=rss