B.C. teacher guilty of sex assault in Nova Scotia
The Province
Published: Tuesday, September 04, 2007

A notorious teacher convicted of sexually touching five young female students when he taught in Langley in 2000 has been convicted of sexually assaulting a seven-year-old girl in Nova Scotia.

Roger Edouard Mercier, 38, of Dartmouth, was convicted last week in Nova Scotia Provincial Court of sexual assault.

He is in jail awaiting sentencing Sept. 18, according to CBC News.

The judge heard evidence that Mercier took the girl to his apartment in 2005, touched the girl's genitals through her clothing and put his lips on her bare stomach, said the CBC report.

Mercier left B.C. and returned to Nova Scotia, where he had lived previously, after his conviction in 2002 on five counts of sexually assaulting students at a Langley elementary school.

During his trial in Surrey Provincial Court, a psychiatrist testified Mercier is a sexual deviant.

He received a 13-month jail sentence.

Upon his release from custody, he was ordered not to work in any capacity involving children.

It is not known how Mercier was able to resume his teaching career in Dartmouth, a suburb of Halifax.

While Mercier was in Surrey Pretrial Centre in October 2001, he was charged with plotting to murder the prosecutor in his sexual-touching case. At his 2003 trial in New Westminster, Mercier, who was acquitted, testified it was his cellmate who wanted the prosecutor killed.

An epileptic, Mercier suffered beatings on three occasions in Surrey Pretrial.

© The Vancouver Province 2007