Home invasions draw 11 years
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Updated: November 20, 2009 4:26 PM
A 22-year-old man will spend another 11 years and seven months in jail for terrorizing the residents of three homes in Surrey and another in Abbotsford during a four-month crime spree in 2008.
At his sentencing hearing in Surrey Provincial Court, Joseph Paul Fabien Quesnel was described as a crack cocaine addict since the age of 14, who may suffer from some form of mental illness, possibly bipolar disorder.
The written reasons from the Oct. 8 hearing were made public on a court website Thursday.
Quesnel and several other men staged a series of home invasions beginning by kicking in the door of a Surrey residence on June 1, 2008. They claimed to be RCMP officers.
A man and wife and their son were home at the time. The invaders tied up the woman and forced the men to lie on the floor.
It turns out they had the wrong address, but they did not leave empty-handed. They took the family’s rent money, some cell phones and a car.
They hit a different house on July 2, forcing their way past a six-year-old who answered their knock on the door. A mother and father and their three children were home with two grandparents at the time.
This time they had the address they wanted, and left with a safe that contained $250,000 in cash.
On Sept. 16, a third Surrey house was raided by Quesnel and another man who climbed in through a bathroom window while five women, four children and one man were at home.
While Quesnel was collecting jewelry from some of the residents, his associate sexually assaulted one of the women in a downstairs location. Quesnel did not know about the sexual assault, the prosecution said.
Finally on Sept. 19, 2008, Quesnel and some associates raided a house in Abbotsford while seven people were inside.
The family had $120,000 in cash on the premises, which the gang took along with some jewelry.
Quesnel threatened the house occupants with a sawed-off shotgun.
He confessed to his crimes shortly after he was arrested on January 23, 2009.
He has been in custody ever since.
