Mother sentenced in incest case
Last Updated: Friday, November 20, 2009 | 6:01 PM ET
The Canadian Press
A 55-year-old woman was given a sentence without any jail time, and was ordered to pay several thousand dollars, for sexually assaulting her teenage son.
Marie-Jeanne Bédard, who lives in Saint-Agapit outside Quebec City, on Friday was handed a two-year sentence to be served outside prison. She must also give her son $3,500 and pay for the therapy he has needed over the years.
The assaults occurred between January 1993 and March 1994, when the boy was about 13.
In handing down his sentence, the judge said he took into account the fact that Bédard was living through what he called a troubled period in her life.
But the Crown was disappointed. It had been seeking a jail term.
The victim noted one positive result from Friday's sentencing: people will now know what his mother did to him. The judge lifted a publication ban on Bédard's identity, which had been kept secret to protect the victim.
But the son held a news scrum outside the courtroom, and told reporters he wanted his mother's identity made public.
"I lived with that secret inside me for 14 years," he said.
"Today I'm tired of living with that secret."
