A 28-year-old Montreal man is getting out on day parole, after serving a third of his sentence for killing his neighbour who was a convicted pedophile.
Patrick Bélanger heaved a sigh of relief as the parole board announced its decision after half an hour of deliberation, Bélanger later giving his dad a big hug outside the hearing room.
Bélanger had 25 months left to serve of his three year sentence for manslaughter, less time served in detention. He was drunk and severely beat Leonard Wells after finding kiddie porn on his computer in July 2009. Wells died later in hospital.
Several weeks prior to the beating, Belanger says he was possibly sexually violated by Wells who gave him a pill that knocked him out. He awoke to find Wells lying naked next to him.
Wells, a 62-year-old neighbour Bélanger befriended in Lasalle, had been convicted of sexually abusing little boys in Ontario.
"Patrick did not know at the time that he was a registered sex offender at the time so it was not vigilante justice," says Bélanger's father, Mike Bélanger.
"It by no means excuses his behaviour."
Bélanger told the board his first goal was to stay sober and to get his life back on track after a vicious circle of alcohol and drugs such as cocaine and heroin starting at age 11, calling it a sad and disgusting lifestyle. Bélanger said it helped fill a void left by an absent father and a mother who also dealt with drug and alcohol problems.
The parole board granted him day parole, citing Belanger's low risk of being a repeat offender and his exemplary behaviour at the Ste-Anne-des-Plaines prison. The board said the most striking thing was that Bélanger initiated the process of change even before being incarcerated, such as starting therapy, going to AA meetings and going back to school to study welding.
Belanger will stay in a halfway house, can't touch drugs or alcohol or be anywhere near a place or people that deal with the substances, and must continue psychological counselling.
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