A Quebec man charged alongside his wife for allegedly stealing the contents of the St. John’s condo they were renting was deemed by the Parole Board of Canada four years ago to be a danger to women.
“You have very little regard for women,” the parole board wrote to Dominic Delisle in 2014. “Any type of relationship with a woman carries with it a high risk of physical and psychological violence.”
Delisle, 30 — once described by a Montreal newspaper as a “specialist in underage prostitution” — has a lengthy criminal record, including a variety of convictions for which he has served significant jail time.
Among his crimes: assaults, weapons offences, break and entry, uttering threats, conspiracy, drug trafficking and others.
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Pair appear in court for alleged condo heist in St. John’s
In 2013, Delisle was convicted of threatening two prison officials by saying he was going to put bombs under their cars. At trial, he told the court it had been a “dumb joke” and he was sorry for it.
Some of Delisle’s most serious crimes involved forcing teenage girls into the sex trade and living off the money they earned. His victims included girls as young as 14.
“You forced them to prostitute themselves and to dance nude,” the parole board noted. “You kept an iron hand on their activities, while keeping the generous profits for yourself.”
Two years ago, Delisle filed a lawsuit against the Attorney General of Canada and Port-Cartier Institution, the federal penitentiary in which he was serving time, for denying him conjugal visits with his then-fiancee. Delisle attempted to sue for $30,000, saying banning him from physical contact with his partner was causing him harm.
Documents filed with the court included statements from his partner. In one, she wrote, “Banning contact between a man and a woman who love each other is madly immoral and illogical.”
Delisle and his wife, Sarah Daneault, are said to have rented a furnished condo in the centre of St. John’s last October, with Delisle signing the lease under a false name: Nicolas Sigouin. When the couple moved out at the end of January, they allegedly took the contents of the condo — excepty the washer, dryer and dishwasher — with them. The furnishings are estimated to cost about $30,000.
The condo owner discovered the theft about five days later. A moving company contacted police after seeing a media release asking for the public’s assistance in locating Delisle and Daneault, and told officers they had helped the couple move. The RNC later found the items from the condo in a storage locker in Quebec City, with help from police there and in Montreal, though they didn’t locate Delisle and Daneault.
Daneault was arrested last Friday evening at a St. John’s business after police received a tip from a member of the public. Deslisle was arrested in a vehicle on Torbay Road Monday morning, but not before leading police on a chase.
Daneault was charged with a single count of fraud over $5,000 and released from custody under a number of conditions to await her next court appearance.
She returned to the courtroom for her husband’s bail hearing on Tuesday and Wednesday, though he wasn’t released. After reviewing the facts of the case and Delisle’s criminal record from Quebec, Judge Lois Skanes denied him bail.
Deslisle, who faces the same fraud over $5,000 charge as well as charges of impersonation, uttering a forged document (the condo lease), dangerous driving and flight from police.
The couple will make their next court appearance April 18, Daneault in person and Delisle via video from Her Majesty’s Penitentiary.
Twitter: @tara_bradbury
