Report flagged concerns
Concerns revealed a year before death
A year before Joleil Campeau was killed, a psychiatrist expressed concerns that Éric Daudelin, on trial for her murder, had a “very high risk of reoffending through a violent, or even murderous, offence,” Paul Cherry reports as the jury continues deliberations.
Less than one year before 9-year-old Joleil Campeau was killed in 1995, a psychiatrist expressed serious concerns about the man on trial for her murder.
It is a detail contained in a Parole Board of Canada decision, dated Sept. 1, 1994, and is something jury members at Éric Daudelin’s trial are not aware of as they continue to deliberate on a verdict in his case.
Daudelin, 40, is accused of first-degree murder, sexual assault and the forcible confinement of Joleil. She was killed on June 12, 1995, near her family’s home in Laval. Roughly one month earlier, Daudelin had been released from a federal penitentiary after having served the entirety of a two-year sentence he received on May 12, 1993, when he pleaded guilty to committing five sexual assaults on young women. The jury is aware of Daudelin’s criminal record because his lawyers allowed it into evidence.
The jury did not reach a verdict on Tuesday and will resume its deliberations on Wednesday.
Evidence of a past criminal record is normally not allowed to be part of a criminal trial i n Canada, but Daudelin’s lawyers conceded it would ultimately became part of the narrative of his defence. While the six women and six men who make up the jury are aware of the sexual assaults Daudelin committed before Joleil was killed, they are not aware of what is contained in a psychiatrist’s evaluation, dated July 28, 1994, when the doctor recommended Daudelin remain incarcerated for his full sentence.
“It is very clear Mr. Daudelin is actually at a very high risk of reoffending through a violent, or even murderous, offence at this stage, which is something he doesn’t hope for,” the psychiatrist wrote in 1994.
The psychiatrist added that Daudelin’s rage was based on emotions he accumulated from having been frequently ridiculed by his peers. His “exit door” to control the rage was to turn to violent fantasies involving women. The psychiatrist noted that before Daudelin was arrested for the sexual assaults in 1992, he had also followed “hundreds of women” to carry out “systematic plans” for sexual assaults but ultimately backed out before carrying them out. Daudelin told the psychia- trist he felt intense pressure when he followed the women.
Had the jury been able to read that 1994 assessment, they might have compared it to how Daudelin described what he felt while he tried to rape Joleil and before he killed her in a video that was secretly recorded in 2011. The confession, made to an undercover police officer — named Robert for this trial — is a key part of Daudelin’s current murder trial. It was recorded as part of an elaborate police operation during which the accused was led to believe he was becoming part of a criminal organization.
Last week Daudelin, who denies having killed Joleil, testified he fabricated what he said because he felt the undercover police officer only wanted to hear a confession.
During one part of the video, Daudelin was recorded telling Robert that something “snapped” in him while he attacked Joleil and noticed she was trembling in fear.
“So that’s when it went phuitt,” Daudelin said while mimicking the sound of a rocket going off. “It made something snap. I had just gotten out of prison and … I wanted … I can’t describe what happened.”
Prosecutor Pierre-Luc Rolland focused heavily on that part of the video when he cross-examined Daudelin on Friday. Rolland asked the accused if, at that point in the video, he was describing being overcome by something he couldn’t control. Daudelin responded by repeating his claim that his description of how Joleil was killed was fabricated because he wasn’t there when it happened.