Beausoleil Home Hardware owner gets 4 years for sex crimes
Editor’s note: Warning, this story contains disturbing details.
A judge sentenced Chelsea resident and Wakefield businessman Serge Beausoleil to four years in prison for sex crimes against a minor that were described as brutal, disgusting and humiliating dating back to the early 1980s.
On Dec. 8 Gatineau Judge Gaston Paul Langevin handed Serge Beausoleil, the owner of Wakefield Home Hardware store Matériaux de Construction Beausoleil, four years behind bars for sexual crimes involving sodomy, fellation, and masturbation, which took place in the early 1980s against his younger relative over a two-and-a-half year period. Beausoleil, now 58, was 18 and 19 years old and his relative was 10 and younger at the time of the crimes.
“The victim admired the accused. [Beausoleil] was loved by everyone. He was loved by his family and benefited from the esteem of everyone. But in reality, he used his young victim as a sexual object to satisfy his base instincts,” Judge Langevin said, translated from French, during the Dec. 8 sentencing hearing.
After a Feb. 19 trial, Judge Langevin found Beausoleil guilty of gross indecency and indecent assault for acts that took place between July 11, 1981 and Dec. 31, 1983, according to court records.
“The act of sodomy was committed in a particularly brutal, disgusting, and humiliating way,” Langevin said.
Beausoleil’s relative is still affected by the crimes today, the judge said.
“[The victim] suffered serious psychological and physical harm after the assaults. He suffered all his life, from childhood to adolescence, and now, as an adult, … He suffers every day to this day. He is anxious, depressed, and his self-esteem has been destroyed forever,” Langevin said.
Drawing on information from the victim’s testimony and victim impact statement, the judge said that the young victim lost his “joie de vivre” and innocence.
“The crimes committed by [Beausoleil] are heinous, and our society can’t tolerate seeing people as vulnerable as children have their physical and physiological integrity damaged,” Langevin said.
The disgraced local business owner was sentenced to two concurrent sentences of four years.
“The day-to-day operations of our store continue,” Beausoleil’s son Marc Beausoleil wrote in an emailed statement to the Low Down. “In order to protect the privacy of all involved during this difficult time, we do not wish to comment. Thank you for your understanding.”
Langevin said that Beausoleil expressed regret and remorse over his actions during the trial. Beausoleil pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Langevin also said that Beausoleil was caught masturbating in a shopping centre bathroom with other men during a 2015 sting operation targeting public masturbation, but charges related to this incident were not laid.
Along with the prison sentence, the judge ordered Beausoleil never to own guns, not to communicate with the victim or their family, and to submit a DNA sample.
Judge Langevin lifted the publication ban during the sentencing hearing at the victim’s request.