The Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP) on Thursday appealed against a Gatineau man who received a parole after beating and strangling his ex-spouse.
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“The honorable judge erred in law because probation is a manifestly unreasonable and inappropriate punishment,” writes Me Isabelle Michaud, prosecutor at the DPCP.
On July 27, Judge Serge Laurin awarded Joshua Schoo a parole. The man also had to pay $5,000 to a community organization and do 250 hours of volunteer work.
Photo by Facebook, Josh Schoo
Note that the 48-year-old Gatineau resident was found guilty of assaulting his ex-wife in March 2021 following a dispute. However, Schoo was accused of assault and threatened to strangle his victim.
The prosecutor who appealed revealed several errors made in Judge Serge Laurin’s verdict.
decency
Among them: “Concludes that the defendant was not involved in a pattern of domestic violence, although there were two separate sets of violence during the incident” in March 2021.
The DPCP also regrets that the judge considered that a criminal record “would result in the defendant losing his job” and would have “financial implications” for his family.
“The Honorable Judge made significant errors of principle that affected the verdict. […] In particular, he served an unlawful sentence when he imposed a 250-hour probation period of community service because it exceeded the designated limit,” Me Goulet said in the appeal filing.
She also believes that Judge Laurin’s ruling does not respect the principles of denunciation and deterrence in a marital context and that he did not adequately consider the impact on the victim and children who witnessed the violent aggression.
Finally, the DPCP criticizes the judge for pointing out that the Gatineau resident’s crimes were “on the lower end of the scale” in order to put the seriousness of his crimes into perspective.
Recall that last July the Crown first requested that Joshua Schoo be jailed for six months over this episode of domestic violence, which was denied by Judge Laurin for the reasons set out above.
With Antoine Lacroix
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