McKenzie faces new sex-assault charge
A decision by two women to shine a light on how they were sexually abused when they were minors by a man who operated tattoo parlours in the West Island has produced a new sexual assault charge against Rowan McKenzie. McKenzie, 50, of Pierrefonds, is serving a nine-month sentence he received in May after he pleaded guilty to charges related to how he had sex with two minors, ages 14 and 15, in 2013, inside his tattoo and body piercing boutique, Skin Deep, on des Sources Blvd. in Pierrefonds. After McKenzie pleaded guilty in February to two counts each of sexual interference and invitation to sexual touching for having sex with the two minors, one of the victims became frustrated when informed of the sentence McKenzie would ultimately receive and over how he was, at the time, operating a new tattoo parlour on StJean Blvd. within walking distance of a high school. The victim, now a young woman, was inspired by the #MeToo movement to use Facebook to alert others of what happened to her inside McKenzie’s boutique. She described how he manipulated her at a difficult time in her life, and how McKenzie allowed his business to be used as a hangout for troubled teens. Her openness convinced another young woman to reveal that McKenzie was convicted of having sexually assaulted her inside his place of business in 2005 when she was 15. McKenzie closed his boutique on St-Jean Blvd. in Pierrefonds shortly after the Facebook postings by the two women were shared and commented on often. The postings also prompted other women to file complaints with the Montreal police alleging they were also abused by McKenzie. On Friday, a warrant for McKenzie’s arrest was issued at the Montreal courthouse alleging that he sexually assaulted a woman in 1989. A source familiar with the investigation confirmed that the new charge is based on a complaint filed by one of the women who came forward after the victim’s #MeToo campaign. McKenzie was charged on a type of warrant that allows the accused to show up in court at a later date as opposed to being arrested immediately. On Sept. 25, McKenzie was granted parole by the Commission québécoise des libérations conditionnelles (CQLC) despite having been denied a release by the provincial parole board only weeks before. The written summaries of both decisions note that the police “suspect (McKenzie) of having committed other offences of the same nature.” According to a written summary of the decision made to release him, McKenzie, a unilingual anglophone who was raised in England before his family moved to Canada when he was eight, expressed frustration over how his first parole hearing went because he felt that the parole officer who recommended he remain behind bars barely understood him. Because his crimes involved sex offences against minors, he was incarcerated in a section of the Rivière des Prairies Detention Centre that isolates offenders from the general population and he had limited access to rehabilitation programs. He is also described in the decision as having done an about-face by having “recognized a sexual deviance that merits attention particularly on your part. (What he said during his parole hearing in September) reflects that you have taken sufficient responsibility when faced with your behaviour.” The parole board imposed a series of conditions on his release including that he follow and complete therapy or a program to deal with his sexual deviance. He is also required to abstain from being in the presence of a person under the age of 16 in private places unless they are accompanied by an adult who is aware of the crimes he has committed. McKenzie’s current sentence expires on Feb. 16.