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N.H. prep school graduate is ordered to jail

Owen Labrie in court in 2017. Geoff Forester/Concord Monitor/Associated Press

Owen Labrie, the former St. Paul’s School student who was convicted of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl on campus in 2014, will report to jail the day after Christmas, after a New Hampshire judge Tuesday declined to shorten his sentence, according to an official.

Superior Court Judge Larry M. Smukler denied Labrie’s motion for an amended sentence Tuesday afternoon, said Carole Alfano, a spokeswoman for the New Hampshire court system, in an e-mail. Smukler ordered Labrie to report to the Merrimack County House of Corrections at 9 a.m. on Dec. 26 to serve the remainder of his sentence, which currently stands at nine months, according to Alfano.

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The victim in the case, Chessy Prout, now 20, called Tuesday’s ruling “important because it shows survivors that people are listening, even if it takes several years for a single case to be resolved.”

“The only way we will ever truly change rape culture is by holding perpetrators and the institutions that are complicit to these crimes responsible,” she said in a statement. “St. Paul’s School, and now Owen Labrie, are finally being held accountable.”

A message left with Labrie’s attorney, Jaye L. Rancourt, was not immediately returned late Tuesday afternoon.

In court documents filed earlier this year, Rancourt had argued that “incarceration of Mr. Labrie at this point serves no purpose.”

In 2015, Labrie was sentenced to a year behind bars for sexual assault. He was free on bail while he appealed his convictions but was sent to jail in 2016 for violating the terms of his release by missing court-ordered curfews. He served 63 days as a result of the bail revocation order, according to court documents.

Rancourt argued that Labrie has “essentially been under house arrest for over two years” and that the goals of sentencing have been met. She argued that his sentence be suspended or amended to allow work release or home confinement.

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Prosecutors disagreed, with an assistant Merrimack County attorney saying in a court filing that Labrie’s “self-serving characterization of his conduct and circumstances post-sentencing does not justify reducing his 12-month sentence for three counts of sexual assault and child-endangerment to 63 days.”

Labrie, now 23, currently lives in Tunbridge, Vt.

Labrie was acquitted of rape charges but convicted of misdemeanor sexual assault for having sex with someone below the age of consent and using computer services to entice a minor. He received a suspended sentence on the computer services conviction.

In November, the New Hampshire Supreme Court upheld his convictions by a 3-0 margin.


Travis Andersen and John R. Ellement of Globe staff contributed to this report. Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.