A former Deloitte tax professional has been accused of harassing a superior she allegedly had an affair with so badly the firm had to hire bodyguards to protect her.
“He did not stop for 15 months. A formal notice was sent to him, but he continued. The victim was so scared that on several occasions she had to go to sleep with her friends. “She feared for her safety as officers were hired to guard her house,” said Ms.e Patrick Lafreniere at the start of the trial of Philippe Dubé in a Montreal court on Tuesday.
The 30-year-old allegedly committed his crimes from the summer of 2020, months after he was hired by Deloitte as a corporate tax auditor.
She was later recruited into a group specializing in this field, but soon, she fell in love with a superior.
“You turn me upside down, I can’t control myself in your presence,” the defendant allegedly told the woman after seeing her in the office several days later.
Embarrassed, she insists on being professional while explaining to him that their relationship is just work.
Monitored at grocery store
However, this does not apply to the accused, who would have followed the superior while going to the grocery store.
“I went to run errands, and when I stood in line, not even ten seconds, he came up behind me, he testified Tuesday. I thought it was a strange coincidence. He didn’t know where I lived, where I was going, what time I was going. I didn’t tell him.”
However, the man, whose identity is protected by a court order, says he discovered it may not have been an accident. During an interview, she described knowing that Dubé had gotten into her mind that she was the one who gave him an appointment.
During this meeting, he allegedly accused her of “playing with his emotions, head and heart”.
Flooded with messages
Dubey would have finally lost his job. But that doesn’t stop him from harassing the girl through emails, text messages, photos and even videos.
She would have ignored all those messages for a year, but that wouldn’t have stopped Dubey. Worse, he may have come to believe that she was hired specifically to seduce him, according to the evidence the Crown intends to present.
“He believed there was a Deloitte conspiracy against him,” Ms.e Lafreniere told the jury that the accused had gone so far as to contact the victim’s mother, although she had nothing to do with the whole affair.
Enraged, the victim finally responded to Dube’s messages, asking him to stop, but the latter refused to accept.
“It’s for life,” he told her.
The trial, presided over by Judge Miriam Lawsons, is expected to last for about a month.
“Pop culture practitioner. Award-winning tv junkie. Creator. Devoted food geek. Twitter lover. Beer enthusiast.”
