A convicted kidnapper who took a nine-year-old girl from her mother?s bed in 1996 will be back in court this week.
Jacques Auclair, 59, was convicted in December of 1998 following a lengthy trial with kidnapping, break and enter with intent to commit kidnapping and three sex-related charges against the girl he kidnapped.
Auclair was sentenced to 11 years in penitentiary by Justice John Poupore of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
However, in June 2001, the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld the kidnapping and break and enter with intent counts, but overturned all three sex-related convictions.
Auclair was found guilty of sexual assault causing bodily harm, sexual touching of a person under age 14 and sexual invitation to touching. The appeals court has ordered a new trial on these three charges. The trial is set to begin Monday.
Auclair was in court early last week and pleaded not guilty to the three charges he still faces. Pre-trial motions then took place and a ban on publication was ordered by the court on those motions.
Auclair?s girlfriend at the time, Claire Leduc, received a five-year penitentiary term after pleading guilty to kidnapping the young girl.
After she was kidnapped, the girl, then aged nine, was found by police wandering alone wearing only a nightgown in the bush after escaping from a camp where she had been taken by Auclair and Leduc.
Auclair was found drunk behind the wheel by an OPP officer the afternoon after she was reported missing.
It?s expected the girl, now aged 15, will have to testify once again at Auclair?s new trial.
