Man who stabbed N.D.G. woman back in custody
Mathew Roberge, the man who failed to report to a halfway house on Sunday while he continues to serve a sentence for having stabbed a woman in Notre-dame-de- Grâce in a random attack, has been apprehended.
Smadar Brandes, the victim of the Jan. 27, 2016 attack, told the Montreal Gazette she was informed of Roberge's arrest by Correctional Service Canada (CSC) on Tuesday.
“We can confirm that Mathew Roberge was unlawfully at large and (was) apprehended on Nov. 17, 2020,” a spokesperson for CSC wrote. “CSC works closely with the police and other agencies to ensure public safety and is committed to working with municipal officials and community organizations to encourage the safe return of offenders to communities while taking into consideration victims and the communities. For privacy reasons, we cannot confirm the location of an offender.”
In September, Brandes had asked that Roberge not be released to a halfway house in Montreal as he was set to be released from a penitentiary when he reached his statutory release date. The Parole Board of Canada decided to release him to a halfway house in St-henri despite the victim's request. Brandes felt the CSC and the parole board put Roberge's chances at rehabilitation over her own as a victim of a random violent attack where she could have been killed.
Roberge stabbed Brandes with such force the knife was left stuck in her neck.
Roberge was not previously granted parole and he automatically qualified for a release when he reached the two-thirds mark of his prison term. In such a situation, the Parole Board of Canada is limited to deciding if it should impose conditions on the offender's release.
In a decision made in September, the parole board noted Roberge's family is based in Montreal and his relatives were the support network he needed to prepare to return to society. A parole board member ordered him to reside at a halfway house for the 14 months that remained on his sentence.
Roberge, now 30, was left with a 42-month sentence after he pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and admitted he stabbed Brandes in the neck as she walked home from the Villa-maria métro station. At the time of the stabbing, he was serving a 19-month sentence for manslaughter.
Roberge has likely been returned to a penitentiary where the CSC will determine how to deal with the breach of his release condition. He will also likely be charged in court for having breached the condition.