Convicted murderer granted escorted leave despite protests from victim’s family

The man convicted of murdering Brigitte Serre during a gas station robbery nearly 20 years ago has begun escorted leaves from prison.

Bruno Serre says he hasn’t had any peace of mind since his daughter was murdered almost 20 years ago.

Brigitte Serre was killed during a hold-up as she worked the night shift at a gas station in Saint-Leonard.

“I always felt guilty because I wasn’t there for my daughter. I should have been there”, said Serre in an interview with CTV News.

Sebastien Simon, a former co-worker of Brigitte at the gas station, was later arrested along with two accomplices. Simon was sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder, with no possibility of parole for 25 years. However, the parole board just granted escorted leaves, five days a week, for an unspecified work program from the penitentiary where he’s serving his sentence in a minimum-security facility.

Serre and his wife, Darlene Ryan, call the decision a slap in the face.

“It really is. It’s a true joke. It’s, you know, it’s 25 years, “ said Ryan, referring to the minimum she assumed a convicted murderer has to serve before being eligible to ask for parole.

Serre and Ryan spent the better part of the last decade lobbying for crime victims, their rights, and making sure Brigitte’s killer would never see the light of day.

Earlier in his sentence, the parole board classified Simon as having anti-social personality traits, signs of immaturity, and at a “high risk to reoffend violently.”

Serre and his wife wrote letters every time Simon requested a transfer to a Quebec penitentiary or an escorted leave. The couple always feared Brigette’s killer was playing the system and telling the board what they wanted to hear.

To this day, they feel their input as victims never mattered, as Simon was allowed more than 50 occasional leaves to see family or participate in work programs, in the presence of an escort from Correctional Services Canada.

“Honestly, I don’t see how we’ve done everything in our power to put a stop to this, to fight the system, to gain victims’ rights,” said Ryan, who became Brigitte’s stepmother four years before the tragedy.

The parole board doesn’t comment on individual cases. But legal experts say this is the way the system works.

“If they find that the individual would pose an undue risk to the community, they won’t grant the escorted temporary absence,” explained criminal defence lawyer Eric Sutton.

“And if they don’t feel that it’s an activity that will serve to rehabilitate the person, then they won’t. “

But if Simon does continue to behave well, Sutton acknowledged that it’s a sign he could be heading to full parole by 2030.

He points out that Simon would remain under the watchful eye of the parole board for the rest of his life.

“One day, he’ll get out,” Serre said. “But for us, the suffering will last forever.”