Quebec Inmate Who Fled for 51 Months Pleads Guilty to Escaping Federal Prison
A Quebec man who spent 51 months on the lam from a federal prison before he was arrested last year has pleaded guilty to escaping custody.
Denis Bégin was sentenced to 18 months in prison to be served concurrently with a life sentence that he is already serving for second-degree murder.
Court documents in an unrelated case from Correctional Service Canada identify Mr. Bégin as a suspect in the Old Montreal fire last year that killed seven people, but police have never publicly identified him as a suspect and no charges have been laid in that case.
Mr. Bégin, 63, pleaded guilty on March 21 in a brief appearance by video conference before Quebec court Judge Marc-André Dagenais in Laval, Que., north of Montreal.
Judge Dagenais agreed to a joint recommendation from the defence and Crown.
Mr. Bégin was considered one of Quebec’s most wanted criminals before he was caught.
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