A former Hamilton police officer will not go to jail for sexually assaulting the woman he was mentoring as she pursued her own career in policing.

Michael LaCombe, 54, will instead serve 12 months of house arrest followed by 12 months of probation after Justice Cameron Watson found him guilty of two counts of sexual assault in January, following a trial.

Watson sentenced LaCombe on Monday at the Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines, Ont., describing his crimes and the aftermath as “a spectacular and cataclysmic fall from grace” in his written decision.

“His life has taken an irreparable downward spiral. He is no longer the man he once was,” Watson wrote.

Watson also described how LaCombe’s conduct “devastated” the victim, who has felt isolated and suffers from panic attacks, among other impacts, in recent years.

  • Ulrich_the_Old
    16·
    8 months ago

    We want the same penalties for everyone who commits a crime. It should never matter what the criminals job is nor how much money they make. The same penalties should apply to EVERYONE!!!

    • Jaybob32
      6·
      8 months ago

      Unfortunately this is consistent with other sexual assault sentences here. From what I’ve seen anyway. Purely anecdotal. Raped and ruined your own children and complicated their lives for all time? 8 months for you. And out for good behaviour in 4. Justice served /s

    • karlhungus
      6·
      8 months ago

      In most cases yes. However in the cases of fines poor people are more penalized than wealthy, so there should be some proportional consideration there.