Franco-Ontarian author Body Ngoy faces serious criminal charge

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BARROW COUNTY – Last November, Franco-Ontarian cartoonist Body Ngoy was arrested in the United States in the state of Georgia. Accused of inappropriately touching a child at a wedding at Chateau Elan in Braselton, he faces prison if he is found guilty.

On November 11, 2022, Body Ngoy and his companion attended the wedding of Florence Bandu, a Congolese journalist and author. An event that should have gone off without a hitch.

However, the 52-year-old Franco-Ontarian from Ottawa was arrested in the evening around 10:30 p.m. in the small town of Braselton a few kilometers north of Atlanta. According to the Braselton police report, Body Ngoy is charged with “second degree cruelty to a child”.

In the state of Georgia, this charge indicates that if a person, by criminal negligence, causes a child under the age of 18 cruel pain, mental or physical, it is considered a second degree offense of cruelty to a child.

That evening, at Château Elan, the cartoonist would have kissed a minor. ONFR+ obtained the Braselton police report which claimed that Mr. Ngoy had intentionally kissed a 16-year-old girl.

An accident according to his lawyer

According to his lawyer, this is a terrible misunderstanding. Mr. Jackie Patterson declared in court, shortly after the arrest of his client, that this was only a mistake. He explained in particular that Mr. Ngoy had seen a man who appeared passed out on a bench and simply approached him to see if he was okay.

According to the lawyer, when the person abruptly stood up, their lips accidentally touched. “It wasn’t intentional,” Patterson repeated in mid-November during the Ottawa author’s hearing.

Speaking briefly at the microphone ofONFR+, Mr. Ngoy said he was extremely shocked: “It is beyond me, it is witchcraft what is happening to me. »

His lawyer declined our interview, the case being ongoing. Body Ngoy said he did not want to go into details, but confirmed that he was with his wife and that at this precise moment in the evening he was heading to the toilets.

In the police report, the teenager explains that she was lying on a sofa near the hotel bathroom when suddenly a man allegedly leaned towards her in the way Spiderman and asked if he could kiss her. She would have said no, but the man would have done it anyway.

The police officer sent to the scene explains that a video from the hotel would show Body Ngoy as the one described by the young girl.

According to article 5 of the georgia code, such an act (if confirmed) constitutes a crime. Mr. Ngoy faces a minimum of one year in prison and up to a maximum sentence of ten years.

“However, I trust American justice to prove my innocence,” he proclaims.

Respected in his community

Body Ngoy arrived in Canada in 1992, originally from Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, he very quickly integrated the Franco-Ontarian community. He is considered a writer committed to the fight against racism.

He has published no less than seven comics which often trace the course of immigration. One of his works: The Canadian dream promotes the integration of Francophone newcomers into the Franco-Ontarian community. His last book Kassav has had recent success.

Body Ngoy is one of the founding members of the Coalition of Francophone Blacks of Ontario, he was vice-president of the Regroupement ethnoculturel des parents francophones de l’Ontario (REPFO).

To date, no additional information regarding this case has surfaced. Body Ngoy reportedly posted $5,000 bail. While awaiting further investigation, he returned home to Ottawa.