Carole Thomas sentenced to 15 months under house arrest, curfew for lying about sexual assault
A Montreal woman who admitted to lying to police about being sexually assaulted on a bike path was sentenced Friday to eight months of house arrest.
Carole Thomas pleaded guilty earlier this month to charges of mischief and forgery.
Her sentence includes an additional seven months of curfew. Thomas will then be under probation for two years.
The charges date back to February 2015, when Thomas went public with claims she had been sexually assaulted on a bike path in Longueuil just two days before 23-year-old Jenique Dalcourt was fatally attacked in the same area.
Thomas' lawyer, Olivier Sirard, told CBC News that his client is ready to accept the consequences of her actions.
"She is a fragile person," Sirard said. "She needs help and that's what she's going to get."
During a court hearing in Longueuil a few weeks ago, Crown prosecutor Julie Laborde explained how police used cell phone records to prove Thomas was nowhere near the scene of the alleged assault on Montreal's South Shore at the time she said it happened.
In fact, she was at her former home in Town of Mount Royal at the time.
In handing down her sentence, Quebec Court Judge Ann-Mary Beauchemin recognized that Thomas lost her job following the incident and has since struggled to find work.
Thomas moved back to New Brunswick to get out of the spotlight and be closer to family.
Police brotherhood claimed defamation
Thomas had previously criticized Longueuil police for refusing to take her case seriously and singled out Sgt.-Det. David Lelièvre in particular.
The Longueuil police brotherhood sent Thomas a legal notice earlier this year, contending she defamed Lelièvre. The suit was dropped after she apologized for her comments.
Laborde said she hoped Thomas' crimes would not deter real victims of sexual assault from coming forward.
