Sentencing delayed for Quebec man who cut off victim-alerting ankle bracelet

Parole Agent Steve Nakamura inspects a GPS locater worn on the ankle of a parolee in Rio Linda, Calif. on Aug. 3, 2009. (AP Photo / Rich Pedroncelli)

The sentencing hearing for a Montreal-area man who pleaded guilty to cutting off his GPS tracking bracelet while out on bail for domestic violence charges was delayed again on Friday.

Alexandre Tremblay Malboeuf, 31, was ordered to wear the device, which tracked his location, after he was granted bail.

The bracelet is designed to warn victims if their attacker is in the vicinity and is meant to be tamper-proof, but in December 2023 Malboeuf managed to cut it off in what is believed to be the first time it has happened in Quebec. Police in Longueuil, on Montreal's South Shore, quickly launched an alert, and officers with the Roussillon police service were able to catch and arrest the suspect.

Malboeuf's sentencing hearing was supposed to take place Friday at the Longueuil courthouse Friday, but the lawyer for the accused told the court that she did not have the mandate from her client to reach an agreement with the prosecution on a sentence.

Crown prosecutor Eliane Villemur hopes to send a strong message by giving a one-year prison sentence to the accused.

"It's an individual that does have priors regarding the same victim, also priors for breaching his conditions. So, we have to increase the sentencing for each individual. And since he has lots of priors of breaches, the sentence that he will receive must reflect [that]," she said Friday.

The Crown also did not hide her disappointment in the sentencing being postponed yet again.

"This is an important case, given that it's the first time an individual has cut off his bracelet, who is being followed, there's a victim behind it," Villemur said in a press scrum after the hearing. "For us, it's important that this has a finality and that we can impose a sentence on this individual."

The sentencing hearing will resume on July 11.

With files from Noovo Info