A retired teacher from Saint-Hyacinthe would have taken advantage of physical education classes to touch the breasts and private parts of primary school girls, according to reports following the movement. #moiaussi by nine of his former students.
“Unfortunately I reacted in a silent and inert manner, I do not remember having any defensive or retreating movement. I felt uncomfortable. “I didn’t feel good,” one of Gilles Robineau’s alleged victims said of the touching.
The now retired teacher is being tried at the Saint-Hyacinthe court for sexual assault, sexual contact and indecent assault. In the 1970s and 1980s, he allegedly killed at least nine victims, all of whom were his students at the time.
Caresses under clothes.
The first three alleged victims who testified today were under 10 years old when Robineau was their physical education teacher at a Saint-Hyacinthe elementary school. His identity is protected by court order.
Former physical education teacher Gilles Robineau during his arrest by the Sûreté du Québec, in November 2018. Photo courtesy of the Sûreté du Québec
In particular, he allegedly fondled one of the girls on the chest several times above and below her leotard while she was helping him with materials for class in a small warehouse adjacent to the gym. “My chest was at stage zero, I had no shape,” he said.
During the horse jumping exercises, he allegedly touched her pubis, sometimes even under her clothes, the woman reported before Judge Christian Jarry. “She was putting her hand in her groin,” she said.
For another student, it was during gym classes after school that Robineau took the opportunity to attack her: “He put his fingers between my buttocks and the leotard as if to replace it. After that she went further.”
This time, her master rubbed his erect member while holding her from behind. “At that time I didn’t even know what she was,” the woman who is now in her fifties said timidly.
He never told anyone at the time, because private lessons after school “were his secret.” Uncomfortable, she ended it after this event.
In the same room
A third alleged victim also claimed that her chest was touched in the small warehouse of the Saint-Thomas-d’Aquin school.
“We were sitting in the gym and he asked me to go get some class supplies from the room where they were stored. I was in front of him (…) his hands ended up on my breasts,” she said while answering questions from Crown prosecutor Sr.my Marie-Claude Morin.
Gilles Robineau, who is defended by Mmy Brigitte Martin was handcuffed in her home in Mauricie by the Sûreté du Québec in November 2018. The testimonies of the other six alleged victims will be heard during the week in the trial of the 72-year-old man.
What they say…
“I loved gymnastics and dancing. My parents couldn’t afford to (enroll us in) classes. But I put an end to it, I didn’t want to go back there. “I was naive at that age, but not naïve enough to turn back.” — Alleged victim of private gym classes with her former teacher
“The #metoo movement in the fall of 2017 revived my memories and the feeling of wanting to do something with it.”
“I didn’t understand exactly what was happening and we didn’t talk about it at the time. “I was stuck in my feelings.” — The first woman to report Gilles Robineau, allegedly attacked on the premises and during the jumping horse exercise
“I froze. Afterwards I didn’t want to go any closer to him. I left (the physical education class) as quickly as possible.” — An alleged victim, now 52, who was allegedly shot in the chest at the warehouse .
Do you have any information to share with us about this story?
