Allegations that Montreal billionaire Robert G. Miller sexually exploited underage girls have brought back painful memories for a Montreal woman who says the man x27;affaires allegedly attacked her in 1977, when she was 12 years old.
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Now in her 50s, Carmen says she was only 12 when her husband Montreal businessman Robert Miller allegedly attacked her in 1977.
- Brigitte Noël (View profile)Brigitte Noël
When she learned of the allegations against Robert Miller this year, Carmen* says her world turned upside down.
Because not only the story of his alleged victims was upsetting, but it brought back painful memories: in 1977, when she was 12 years old, Carmen was also a victim of the businessman, a friend of her parents.
She even thinks she may have been one of the first victims of the man who asked to be called Bob.
I still have nightmares about what happened when I was a child, she wrote in an affidavit.
Carmen is a pseudonym: the Montrealer has asked that her identity be protected, as her family is still unaware of these events. His allegations were submitted as part of a class action lawsuit against Montreal businessman Robert Miller.
In February 2023, the The Radio-Canada show Enquête revealed the stories of several women who accused Robert Miller of paying them for sex when they were minors.
The investigation also revealed the existence of a sophisticated network through which high-ranking employees of Mr. Miller's technology company, Future Electronics, allegedly helped him organize his illicit sexual activities.
The billionaire also allegedly paid thousands of dollars to his alleged victims to bring him other young girls.
In February, a few hours after the broadcast of the Investigation report, Robert Miller has resigned as CEO of Future Electronics. The Montreal multinational subsequently announced that it would be sold to a Taiwanese company for more than 5 billion Canadian dollars.
Miller has always denied all the allegations made against him. His lawyers did not respond to a request for comment on this latest affidavit.
More than 40 women, including Carmen, have added their names to a class-action lawsuit against Miller, a proceeding that has not yet been authorized. Three other individual lawsuits – totaling nearly $30 million in claims – were also filed in Quebec Superior Court. Miller disputes all of these lawsuits.
So far, the allegations collected in the Radio-Canada investigation and in the victims' affidavits took place over a 24-year period, from 1992 to 2016.
But Carmen's account suggests the 80-year-old billionaire may have started his crime in the 1970s.
I called Uncle Bob, but there is no family connection, explains Carmen in an interview with Radio-Canada.
The businessman was then in his late thirties and already prosperous, she says. A friend of her parents, he was very present in her life at the time.
She describes a charismatic and generous man, a handsome tall brunette who gave lots of compliments and who she had no reason to distrust. He was a wolf in sheep's clothing.
The abuse began in 1977, she explains in her affidavit.
That evening, Miller and his wife came to Carmen's house to take his family to a restaurant. Carmen, who had spent the day playing outside with her friends, said she had a tantrum so she wouldn't have to go.
She says that her mother ended up complying, on the condition that Carmen take a shower. According to her, Miller then offered to watch her, under the pretext that he had several professional calls to make.
Until that evening, Carmen says she was a happy little girl who spent her time having fun with the neighborhood children. We played tag, we played soccer, baseball, I climbed trees, I came home muddy from head to toe, she remembers. Until that moment, I was truly innocent. I had no reason to fear anyone, anything.
“I found it extremely terrifying, there were lots of emotions running through my head, why is he doing that, he's supposed to be my Uncle Bob », Confided Carmen to Radio-Canada.
That night, as she settled down to watch TV, she says Miller reminded her that she had told her mother she would wash up. She remembers reluctantly agreeing.
When she got out of the shower, she says Miller was leaning on the vanity sink, towel in hand. The businessman then allegedly dried her body, rubbing her to keep her warm.
Then, she says he followed her to her room, where he forced her to have full sex.
I was crying because he hurt me, I felt completely violated, without knowing what that word meant.
The man The businessman allegedly tried to reassure her by telling her that this act was normal, and gave her $20 to buy something nice.
I found it extremely terrifying, there were lots of emotions running through my head. Why does he do that? This is supposed to be my Uncle Bob! she says. I had never seen my brother or my father naked, I didn't know what was happening.
At the time, Carmen says she was too afraid to tell anyone.
She says Robert Miller began visiting her regularly for sex.
At first, she says he would give her $20 or $40 per meeting, amounts which later reached $200 to $300, and once $1000, still cash.
She said Miller had two friends who lived in two separate apartments in the same building as her family. Carmen says that when her mother was at home, these men would lend their apartments to Miller for his sexual encounters.
These men told me have seen, but I couldn't tell you their names, she laments.
The Radio-Canada investigation revealed that after the 1990s, the businessman would have used a series of Montreal hotel rooms as well as a plush house in Westmount to meet the young girls he recruited. These meetings would have been facilitated by some of her colleagues and associates.
This detail does not surprise Carmen, who is convinced that, even at the time, Miller had help. How can they justify their actions, helping this man find victims like that? she says. How can you encourage, how can you accept what is happening?
However, she says she does not judge the young girls who would have recruited other victims for the billionaire, because I know what he did to me and what he told me. He brainwashed me in several ways.
The businessman also allegedly asked him to recruit other young girls, small sisters of her friends. I said no, out of the question, she said.
Carmen explains that Miller managed to keep their relationship secret by telling her that she was his special little girl and that it was typical sexual relations .
At the time, people didn't really talk about this kind of situation, she said.
That generation didn't say anything, even if terrible things happened, she said. It remained silent, even within the family.
Over the years, Carmen says she began to feel more and more ashamed of this secret relationship.
If I complained, the amounts of money increased, she said. She said she sometimes threatened to alert the police, which allegedly made Miller laugh.
He said: Who do you think they will believe? Someone like you, or someone like me?
She says he took her more seriously when she threatened to tell her parents.
Carmen reportedly last saw Robert Miller in 1982, when she was 17. She says that when she ended their relationship, the businessman asked her again to bring him other young girls.
He gave me a pretty thick envelope and said, "Just keep your mouth shut,", she said. And then, I understood that it was a threat.
“I've been on antidepressants since 1992, and if I don't take them, I fall apart.” Carmen says the envelope contained approximately $10,000 in cash, which she threw down the trash chute at her apartment complex. She acknowledges that some people might find it hard to believe, but I didn't want to know anything about him, I didn't want to give [the money] to friends. If I was going to drop this off, someone would have asked me where the money came from.
When it stopped, I was like OK, it's over.
In 1986, Carmen says she finally confided her secret to the man who is now her husband. She says that the latter saved her life by encouraging her to seek medical advice. It was in therapy that she finally managed to dissect everything she had experienced.
His experience with Miller, however, would have left several after-effects. I've been on antidepressants since 1992, and if I don't take them, I fall apart.
She says she lost track of the businessman until he made headlines in the early 2000s in connection with an FBI investigation (New window) which targeted the business relationships of Future Electronics. This investigation was subsequently abandoned.
I remember thinking: Well, what did he do again? Just his name really upset me.
Then, in 2023, his siblings told him about the Radio-Canada investigation concerning Miller . She said they were outraged to learn that their parents' friend was the target of such allegations.
I was told that he had done terrible sexual things with young girls and I said: oh my God, I'm not the only one.
Her family still doesn't know about the abuse she says she suffered, and she isn't ready to talk to them about it.
However, she says she is driven by a deep desire to denounce, and now plans to contact the police.
If I had had the courage, even in 1992 when I started talking about it, to go and talk to the police, maybe he would have stopped doing what he did to others, she laments. Or maybe not, because he was a man who could pay everyone to keep quiet.
Carmen looks back on this period with bitterness of his life.
He stole everything from me, she says. A little girl of that age should never experience or do what I experienced. I grew up very, very quickly.
She says the experience transformed her: once go-getter and fun-loving, she would become nervous and fearful. I was afraid to be with other men, even young boys, because in my head they were all the same, she says. I no longer laughed, I no longer smiled, I was really withdrawn.
She also reportedly dropped out of school at the age of 16 and abandoned the sport for which she had Olympic aspirations. My dreams no longer existed, she admits.
Carmen finds it hard to believe that her own mother didn't notice something was wrong. If you look at my old report cards, the teachers must have said to themselves: there is a serious problem, she said, lamenting the fact that no one intervened. I was sinking everything, everything, everything. I was afraid of my shadow.
She also says she experienced eating disorders linked to this story, first anorexia and then overeating. I said to myself: I will no longer be a victim, so I became obese, I no longer wanted a man to find me to his liking, to find me pretty. I didn't want any of that.
As an adult, she says she had difficulty traveling for work, especially with her male colleagues. The job I had, I had to speak in public and I wasn't able to, she said. I will never be 100% cured. She says she continues to have nightmares about Miller.
Carmen is especially sorry about the impact this has had on her family life. She allegedly told her husband that she didn't want children, because if it's a girl I'm going to be an overprotective mother. I gave birth to my son and was relieved that it was a little boy, but after that I was afraid that he would become a predator.
It absolutely ruined my life, no exaggeration.
- Brigitte Noël (View profile)Brigitte NoëlFollow