Longueuil police arrest 57-year-old man for sexual assault of teenager in 1995

Longueuil police (SPAL) arrested 57-year-old Louis Junior Poirier on sexual assault charges for a crime he is accused of committing in 1995. SOURCE: SPAL

LONGUEUIL, QUE. — Police in Longueuil (SPAL) arrested a man from the Greater Longueuil area on Wednesday morning who is suspected of a sexual assault committed 25 years ago, in the summer of 1995.

The SPAL identified the suspect as Louis Junior Poirier, a man now 57 years old.

According to the police, on Aug. 17, 1995, around midnight, the victim, a teenager aged 15 at the time, left her home in Saint-Hubert to join friends. She went through the Parc de la Cité, formerly called the Parc du Méga Projet.

On the park bike path, the suspect allegedly knocked her off his bicycle and then sexually assaulted her.

The young victim subsequently contacted the police, but no suspect was arrested.

However, in Oct. 2018, a similar event that was the subject of a police investigation outside SPAL territory prompted Longueuil police officers to analyze new elements of the investigation.

Thanks to advances in technology, technicians at the Montreal Forensic Science and Medicine Laboratory were able to find matches with the 1995 suspect.

Poirier faces sexual assault and kidnapping charges with intent to kidnap.

Investigative evidence led police to believe that the suspect could have caused other victims.

SPAL investigators are asking anyone who may have been a victim of this man or who has information on him to contact them.

-- this report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 9, 2020.