Montreal lawyer charged with sexual assault of a minor 'still under
A Montreal based civil lawyer arrested earlier this month in a child luring investigation will have to spend at least a few more days behind bars as he continues to seek to have a bail hearing.
Daniel Rochefort, 72, a resident of Old Montreal, was first arrested by Montreal police on May 7. He was charged the following day with producing child pornography and with child luring.
The latter charge alleges he communicated with an investigator posing as a 12-year-old girl while he is alleged to have tried to commit a sex crime, including sexual assault.
When he made his first court appearance the following day he was ordered to remain detained.
On May 11, when Rochefort made his second court appearance, the attorney learned he faces nine additional charges alleging he sexually abused a minor, in Montreal and in a foreign country. The most serious charge alleges he sexually assaulted the minor between 2007 and 2012.
Rochefort has yet to have a bail hearing and, on Monday, his lawyer, Gérald Soulière, told two different Quebec Court judges that scheduling such a hearing is difficult, in part, because his client is still under investigation.
The judge Soulière spoke to Monday afternoon said “the evidence is voluminous” when explaining why he couldn’t hold a bail hearing for Rochefort over the course of just a half a day. The judge agreed to schedule the bail hearing for Thursday, or possibly Friday.
Soulière told the court that Rochefort plans to testify at his bail hearing and that another person will testify to support his release.
“This case is evolving,” Soulière said before he went over a chronology of what has happened to Rochefort since his arrest.
“Since the two cases were reported on by media there have been a lot of people who have communicated with the police.”
Soulière said the Crown has been disclosing some of the evidence in the ongoing investigation to him.
Last week, the Montreal police issued a statement: “Investigative teams from the two specialized units have reason to believe that Daniel Rochefort may have had other victims. The events he is accused of allegedly took place between 2007 and 2026.
“As part of the investigation into online luring, Daniel Rochefort (allegedly) contacted his victims through mobile applications and social media platforms, including Instagram and Snapchat.”
The Montreal police allege Rochefort used the pseudonym dannyrock16752 on Instagram and the pseudonym dannyrock201721 on Snapchat while he communicated with victims.
According to a report published by La Presse last week, Rochefort was fired by Université de Montréal in 2022.
Rochefort worked at the university as a lecturer in the faculty of arts and sciences and in continuing education. The report by La Presse quotes from a decision made by an arbitration tribunal last year that refers to a complaint filed in June 2018 concerning Rochefort’s conduct towards a student enrolled in a certificate program. The student accused Mr. Rochefort of “harassing and disruptive conduct,” La Presse reported.