A witness advised a defamation trial on Friday she felt like a “prisoner” throughout a 1992 encounter with Quebec Cardinal Marc Ouellet.
Marie-Louise Moreau testified that Ouellet got here up behind her whereas she was getting ready objects for a mass in Montreal, put his fingers on both aspect of her, and allegedly rubbed his pelvis in opposition to her behind.
“I used to be a prisoner,” she stated. “I needed to get away.”
Moreau, 84, was a witness within the Superior Courtroom civil trial of Paméla Groleau, who’s being sued for defamation by Ouellet after she named him in a category motion alleging sexual misconduct by members of the Quebec Metropolis diocese.
Ouellet has launched a $100,000 defamation go well with in opposition to Groleau, alleging that she broken his status, honour and dignity. He has denied appearing inappropriately along with her or anybody else.
Moreau advised the courtroom that after she freed herself from Ouellet she ran out of the constructing. She stated she by no means went again to anywhere she thought he may be, and would cross to the opposite aspect of the road when she handed the constructing for worry of assembly him.
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The 84-year-old stated she didn’t inform anybody in regards to the encounter till 2023, after Groleau got here ahead publicly with accusations of misconduct in opposition to the cardinal.
“I’ve carried this for 34 years,” Moreau stated.
Groleau’s allegations first surfaced in 2022 as a part of a wider class-action lawsuit in opposition to the archdiocese of Quebec and dozens of its clergy or lay members. Groleau beforehand advised the courtroom that Ouellet touched her with out her consent on three events, together with one time when he allegedly he ran his hand down her again to the highest of her buttocks in 2010.
Beneath cross-examination, she stated that final occasion is the one one which she considers a sexual assault.
The allegations within the class motion haven’t been examined in courtroom, and Ouellet has by no means been charged with against the law in relation to Groleau’s allegations.
Moreau advised the courtroom on Friday that her conscience prompted her to talk out after Groleau went public. “I knew somebody needed to know that she wasn’t alone,” she advised the courtroom.
She, like Groleau, has agreed to have her identify printed, waiving the publication ban that normally applies in instances involving sexual assault allegations.
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