Sexual gratification fuelled alleged killer of corrections employee: Crown

Claude Larouche, 48, is shown in this Montreal Police handout photo made available on Friday Nov. 6, 2009 (THE CANADIAN PRESS / HO, SPVM)

MONTREAL — A Quebec man charged with the rape and murder of a federal corrections employee was fuelled by sexual gratification, according to the Crown.

Claude Larouche's murder trial began Wednesday with the Crown outlining its case against the 49-year-old carpenter.

The victim, 37-year-old Natasha Cournoyer, was kidnapped, bound, assault, raped, beaten and strangled to death in October 2009.

Crown prosecutor Eliane Perreault told the jury of eight men and four women that Cournoyer never had a chance.

"Claude Larouche attacked a woman who was completely at his mercy," Perreault told the jurors.

"This murder was planned, premeditated and committed deliberately."

Answering her own question as to why Cournoyer was killed, Perreault said the answer was simple:

"The accused killed this woman because of sexual frustration and for sexual gratification," she said, adding the Crown's case would prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

In her opening statement, Perreault told the jury that a video camera captured Cournoyer showing up to work early in the afternoon of Oct. 1, 2009.

Larouche's van was captured on video by 1:35 p.m., parking next to Cournoyer's car near the end of a massive parking lot of an office tower in Laval, just north of Montreal.

Perreault said Cournoyer worked as a communications employee for the Correctional Service of Canada and was working late so she could ferry her mother to appointments the following day.

The tasks included picking out a headstone for Cournoyer's recently deceased father.

At about 8 p.m., Cournoyer left work late. At 8:09 p.m., her shadow can be seen disappearing from a surveillance video that Perreault said captured the final shot of the slain woman.

"It's the last image of her alive," Perreault said.

Five days later, Cournoyer's body turned up near a boat launch in east-end Montreal. Her vest, shoes, bag and umbrella were gone and she had obvious marks of violence on her body.

"The evidence will establish that the accused violently attacked Natasha Cournoyer," Perreault said.

"He wanted to cause her death. The victim could neither protect nor defend herself against her aggressor."

Larouche showed no reaction as Perreault outlined her case.

Two Laval police officers kicked off the Crown's case. Cournoyer disappeared in Laval but was found in Montreal. One crime scene technician testified finding Cournoyer's driver's licence and other documentation sprinkled along a highway.

Celine Cecile, another Laval police officer who took the initial missing person's report, testified that a frantic Correctional Service of Canada manager alerted police that Cournoyer was missing.

Cecile testified she spoke to Cournoyer's boyfriend, Michel Trottier, and best friend Karine Laflamme.

"He (Trottier) explained that his girlfriend was missing and he was very worried," Cecile said.

They showed her Cournoyer's abandoned Mazda 3 with some scrape marks on one of the back doors.

"It seemed abnormal to me," Cecile testified.

In addition to the usual directives given to the jurors, Superior Court Justice Fraser Martin asked them not to blog about the case, engage in Facebook chats or tweet about the case.

About 30 witnesses including police officers, experts and members of the public are expected to testify during the trial, which is scheduled to last about six weeks.