Attack on Sherbrooke corrections officer nets additional year sentence

An inmate at the Sherbrooke Correctional Centre has been sentenced to an additional year in prison after pleading guilty to a charge of assault causing injury against a corrections officer who tried to get him out of the shower and received a punch in the face for his efforts.

Josué Pierre had been demanding a shower for a long time, when on December 18, 2016 his request was granted. After several requests to finish up, the 30-year old continued to enjoy his shower. When he finally got out, officers mistakenly gave him clothes of another inmate, which led Pierre to start raising a ruckus. It was when officers tried to calm him down that Pierre punched an officer above the upper lip, just under the nose, causing the latter to start to bleed.

The victim testified that after almost a year, he still has to deal with pain caused by the scar of the wound under his nose.

Pierre pleaded guilty Tuesday to the charge of assault causing injuries before Conrad Justice Chapdelaine of the Court of Québec at the Sherbrooke Courthouse.

Pierre told the court that he had calmed down considerably since the event, but did not apologize to his victim.

At the request of the accused, Chapdelaine issued a recommendation that Pierre should serve his sentence, the result of a joint recommendation of counsel, at the Bordeaux prison in Montreal.

Pierre already has three previous convictions connected to violence against a person. He has also been detained for 14 months in a case of attempted murder allegedly committed on August 31, 2016 in Granby. The 30-year-old Montrealer was charged with firing shots at Horner Park. Several people were involved in this case, but there were no injuries as a result of this incident.