Don’t Go Buy Pasta While She’s Tied Up
This is a refreshing bit of Canadian jurisprudence. A tragic tale of death resulting from consensual but ill-advised bondage practices, and the charge brought was, accordingly, criminal negligence:
MONTREAL – A man convicted of manslaughter through criminal negligence after his girlfriend died during an experimental weekend of sado-masochistic sex has been ordered to serve a one-year prison term.
Patrick Deschatelets, 46, a Montreal firefighter, learned his sentence Thursday morning at the Longueuil courthouse during a hearing before Quebec Court Judge Claude Provost.
…
Deschatelets met the woman through a club for adults interested in sado-masochistic sex, in which one partner plays a dominant role while the other acts submissive. The victim had much less experience in such role-playing activities than Deschatelets. According to evidence heard during the trial, Deschatelets and the woman agreed to spend a weekend at his house, in February 2008, experimenting with role-playing activities.
…
On the day she died, the woman, who wrote about her experiences that weekend in a sort of diary on a computer, agreed to be bound in chains – with her feet fully restrained but touching the floor – with a metal collar around her neck. Deschatelets had the elaborate apparatus set up in his basement.
At one point, he stepped out to buy pasta for their dinner and when he came back, he found the woman unconscious and slumped forward in the chains. Using techniques he learned as a firefighter, he tried to revive the woman but she died of asphyxiation. It was later determined she had passed out from fatigue, slumped forward and was choked by the metal collar.
My impression is that the woman’s blog (aka “some sort of diary on a computer”) was very important to the defense, establishing a context of consent and doubtless saving the defendant from more serious charges. But there’s no excuse — not even her consent matters here — for leaving someone unsupervised and helpless in bondage that could compromise their breathing. It’s kind of amazing to see that the case was processed based on the actual criminal acts, rather than being treated as a kinky sex crime.
Similar Sex Blogging:
Shorter URL for sharing: http://www.erosblog.com/?p=9815
I realize that the element of danger can be a major even somewhat necessary part of BDSM sex-play but…
Hopefully without getting too far into a game of “what ifs”, I’d like to point out that I personally would never even leave someone restrained unsupervised for even the very shortest of pasta-buying trips.
Why? Because I don’t want to be responsible for anyone’s death, least of all a hard won subbie’s, also, because I don’t relish doing a year’s stretch in prison, and not to mention that it’s awfully hard to explain to everyone’s parents…
I’d like to point out that even with nothing restricting her breathing or around her neck, if the house had caught fire, she’d have died a horrible and unnecessary death. A literal myriad of other quite possible perils exist in this type of case as well, not all of which are all that farfetched.
She could just as well experienced a similar feeling of abandonment with the employment of a blindfold, and a web camera subsequently secretly trained on her, and monitored from the next room.
Yeah, never leave someone restrained and alone. Even the next room is pushing it unless you’ve got some kind of monitoring system like Dr Whiplash mentioned.
[…] you’ve got somebody tied up, don’t leave them alone. Just don’t. It can lead to death for them and deserved prison for you, even in a relatively compassionate jurisdiction like […]
This is terribly sad to read. I feel uncomfortable popping into the next room for a few seconds (to grab more lubricant, for example) when I have a partner in bondage – and that’s when I can hear them and am only a step or two away. I can’t imagine leaving the house!
xx Dee
Yeah. I like telling The Nymph “don’t go away mad” (like she could) but I can’t remember ever actually getting out of sight.