A 19-year-old woman who beat up a man in the Gay Village two years ago will not have to spend any time in prison.
The young woman was granted a conditional pardon Monday, but will be required to serve 50 hours of community service. She will be on probation for a year.
The victim, Jean-Sebastien Boudreault, was exiting a bar at closing time during Gay Pride celebrations in August 2012, when the woman and two men attacked him.
He awoke in hospital with a black eye and a detached retina.
The woman, who was barely 18 at the time, was apprehended, but the two men with her escaped.
A judge has granted her a conditional pardon, which means she will not have a criminal record.
In addition to the community service, the woman has been ordered not to go into or near the Gay Village where Boudreault works, as the vice president of Pride Montreal.
Boudreault said he’s satisfied with the decision.
“It's a young woman. She's 19. She had just turned 18 when it happened and I didn't see the point of going further into criminalizing her. It wouldn’t help anybody for her to have a criminal file and she showed me remorse. She asked for forgiveness and I believe she was true when she asked for it,” he said.
Boudreault wasn't the only person attacked that night. The woman and the two men with her attacked five other people in the Village during a spree of gay bashings.
While crime is generally down in the area since then, complaints of threats are up.
The Coderre administration is considering placing surveillance cameras in the Village as a way to prevent future crimes.
