Murder accused found guilty in sex assault
The scars on her hands serve as a constant reminder of the day she came face to face with Marc Leduc — the man now accused of killing two Ottawa women — and survived.
The woman, then 19, was just waking up on the morning of Nov. 1, 2012, when she heard Leduc’s heavy breathing as he came through her bedroom door.
The white-haired intruder pulled out a folding knife and ordered her to strip, then forced her to perform a sex act and tried to rape her.
Not once, not twice, but three times the college student fought back, in the process cutting her hand on the would-be rapist’s blade before taking his knife at one point and stabbing him repeatedly.
“I was scared for my life,” she told a judge Monday. “I thought I was going to die right there, naked and covered in blood.”
On Monday, Leduc pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault, choking, break and enter and breach of probation. Three months after the sex attack, Leduc, 58, was charged with first-degree murder in the 2011 slaying of Leanne Lawson and the 2008 slaying of Pamela Kosmack. It’s alleged DNA recovered from the sexual assault linked him to the homicide cases. He is awaiting trial on the murder charges.
In court Monday, prosecutors played a portion of a police interview in which the sexual assault victim described her ordeal.
She talked about how she had intended to get up at 8 a.m. that morning but instead dozed until closer to 10 because her college class was cancelled. She said she was startled by Leduc’s presence in her bedroom, first asking him why he was there before pleading with him to let her go. The woman described how Leduc — his own pants and underwear now pulled down — ordered her to her knees after she took off her clothes and held a knife to the back of her neck.
But when Leduc moved the knife, the woman fought back. She grabbed the blade and badly cut her hands before Leduc again gained the upper hand. He dragged the bleeding woman by the hair.
“You’re going to co-operate or I’ll cut you again,” he said.
Leduc then ordered her to the bed and tried to rape her, but put the knife down during the attempt.
The woman grabbed the knife a second time. The two struggled, rolling off the bed onto the floor.
She screamed for her roommates, who weren’t home. Leduc put her in a choke hold; she stabbed him in the thigh, groin and back.
Leduc’s powerful grip tightened to the point that small hemorrhages began appearing on her face, cheeks and eyes. Struggling to breathe and feeling like she was ready to pass out, the woman made a split-second decision. “I decided to relax, quit fighting back and play dead,” she told police.
When Leduc lightened his grip, she fought back a third time. This time she stabbed him in the head.
The woman later told the judge she never imagined having to use such violence against another person. “My life was on the line and I wanted to live,” she explained.
With Leduc still gripping her, she eventually managed to stand up and was able to break free. She dropped the knife and ran down the stairs. Wearing nothing more than a coat she had grabbed from a closet, she ran to a neighbour’s apartment.
Police later found a bloody Leduc curled up in the fetal position behind a wooden dresser in nothing more than his underwear. He later told police it was all a blur. He claimed he had used $200 to $300 worth of crack between drinks of vodka, liqueur and beer in the day leading up to the attack.
Crown prosecutor James Cavanagh said the Crown intends to seek permission to launch dangerous offender proceedings against Leduc, although that may hinge on the outcome of his first-degree murder trial in 2016.