Bizarre hospital selfie with dying man leads to criminal harassment guilty plea
Bubba Pollock of London, Ont. took a pic in a palliative care room in Windsor with the father of Britt Leroux
Author of the article
oug Schmidt • Windsor Star
Published Jan 23, 2024 • Last updated 1 day ago • 3 minute read
Bubba Pollock of London in a selfie pic apparently taken in 2023 in a palliative care room at Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare in Windsor with the father of Britt Leroux of Windsor. Andre Leroux’s face has been obscured in the circulated pic for privacy reasons. (Photo: Diversity ED)
Bubba Pollock of London in a selfie pic apparently taken in 2023 in a palliative care room at Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare in Windsor with the father of Britt Leroux of Windsor. Andre Leroux’s face has been obscured in the circulated pic for privacy reasons. (Photo: Diversity ED)
A London man has pleaded guilty to criminal harassment for a bizarre episode in which he gained access to a Windsor hospital room last summer and took a selfie with a dying man.
The family of the palliative care unit patient found out about the strange visit shortly after Bubba Pollock posted the photo on his social media profile. He’s shown smiling in the foreground with the bedridden patient, hooked up to medical monitoring equipment, in the background.
The target of the disturbing stunt, according to police and prosecutors, was the patient’s daughter, Britt Leroux, who only knew of Pollock from several heated social media exchanges in the previous days over area Pride events.
Pollock, 34, would post his opposition online to Pride events, including drag queen storybook gatherings, and Leroux would respond as a vocal supporter of the Pride community.
How and why Pollock came to Windsor and gained access to the Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare room of Andre Leroux, Britt’s terminally ill father, remains unexplained. Ontario Court Justice Mark Hornblower on Tuesday ordered a pre-sentence report be prepared on Pollock ahead of a sentencing hearing in Windsor expected in the spring.
The incident “caused significant fear and concern,” assistant Crown attorney Jennifer Holmes told the court Tuesday after Pollock’s guilty plea. A grown daughter of the patient who was visited in June — and who passed away just weeks later — was “terrified and frightened,” Holmes added.
Britt Leroux
Britt Leroux and husband John Reh talk to reporters outside the Ontario Court of Justice in downtown Windsor on Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024, after Bubba Pollock of London pleaded guilty to criminal harassment for a bizarre episode last summer in which the London man accessed a Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare palliative care room and took a selfie with Leroux’s dying father. Leroux took her father’s ashes to Tuesday’s court proceedings. (DOUG SCHMIDT/Windsor Star) PHOTO BY DOUG SCHMIDT /Windsor Star
Pollock, the judge and the Crown and defence lawyers all appeared in the Windsor courtroom via Zoom, but Leroux and her husband John Reh sat in the public gallery, Leroux clutching a box containing her late father’s ashes.
“He said those words — ‘guilty.’ He admitted what he did was wrong,” Leroux told reporters later outside court. “I couldn’t have asked for anything more.”
Leroux said she’s suffered from PTSD “so severe … I can’t remember birthdays.” The episode left her scared for her safety but also determined to continue speaking out in support of the Pride community.
“I’m afraid, but I’ve got to be strong. I don’t want any youth to get afraid,” she said.
Holmes told the court that Pollock “may have done some research” to gain information on Leroux and her family. There had been a recent television news story on Leroux and Reh’s wedding, held at Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare so that the bride’s dying father could participate.
The prosecutor said Pollock had left flowers and a card with Leroux’s father, a man he didn’t know. She said the family was subsequently informed by Pollock that he was waiting for the dying man’s obituary so he could send more flowers.
As a result, Leroux told reporters, there has yet to be a published obituary for her father. “He should have an obituary,” she said, adding “it’s been hard.”
Holmes spoke of the “potential danger” this harassment presented.
On a brighter note, Leroux said the incident involving her father led to the Windsor-Essex Pride Fest hosting its first Drag Queen Storytime & Science Hour, which saw a Lanspeary Park tent packed with an audience of all ages last summer.
“Storytime, I said, is so important … it was beautiful,” said Leroux.
“Just because someone is a bigot and a homophobe doesn’t mean you can let them win,” she said.
Pollock’s London lawyer, Laura Ellis, told the judge the defence agreed with the facts read out by the Crown, but with a “caveat.”
She said her client “absolutely did not attend (Pride rallies and events) to terrorize or harass … that was absolutely not his intent attending these rallies.”
The maximum penalty Pollock faces for his criminal harassment summary conviction is two years less a day in jail.
In an interview to a CTV news reporter at a protest last summer at a London Pride storytime event, Pollock said it was “the sexualizing the outfits that they’re wearing while they’re reading to kids, I have an issue with that.”
Pollock still has a pending criminal case in London and has prior criminal convictions for obtaining sexual services on two occasions and distributing an intimate image without consent, according to court records.
dschmidt@postmedia.com
twitter.com/schmidtcity
torontosun.com
Bubba Pollock of London, Ont. took a pic in a palliative care room in Windsor with the father of Britt Leroux
Author of the article
oug Schmidt • Windsor StarPublished Jan 23, 2024 • Last updated 1 day ago • 3 minute read
Bubba Pollock of London in a selfie pic apparently taken in 2023 in a palliative care room at Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare in Windsor with the father of Britt Leroux of Windsor. Andre Leroux’s face has been obscured in the circulated pic for privacy reasons. (Photo: Diversity ED)
Bubba Pollock of London in a selfie pic apparently taken in 2023 in a palliative care room at Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare in Windsor with the father of Britt Leroux of Windsor. Andre Leroux’s face has been obscured in the circulated pic for privacy reasons. (Photo: Diversity ED)
A London man has pleaded guilty to criminal harassment for a bizarre episode in which he gained access to a Windsor hospital room last summer and took a selfie with a dying man.
The family of the palliative care unit patient found out about the strange visit shortly after Bubba Pollock posted the photo on his social media profile. He’s shown smiling in the foreground with the bedridden patient, hooked up to medical monitoring equipment, in the background.
The target of the disturbing stunt, according to police and prosecutors, was the patient’s daughter, Britt Leroux, who only knew of Pollock from several heated social media exchanges in the previous days over area Pride events.
Pollock, 34, would post his opposition online to Pride events, including drag queen storybook gatherings, and Leroux would respond as a vocal supporter of the Pride community.
How and why Pollock came to Windsor and gained access to the Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare room of Andre Leroux, Britt’s terminally ill father, remains unexplained. Ontario Court Justice Mark Hornblower on Tuesday ordered a pre-sentence report be prepared on Pollock ahead of a sentencing hearing in Windsor expected in the spring.
The incident “caused significant fear and concern,” assistant Crown attorney Jennifer Holmes told the court Tuesday after Pollock’s guilty plea. A grown daughter of the patient who was visited in June — and who passed away just weeks later — was “terrified and frightened,” Holmes added.
Britt Leroux
Britt Leroux and husband John Reh talk to reporters outside the Ontario Court of Justice in downtown Windsor on Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024, after Bubba Pollock of London pleaded guilty to criminal harassment for a bizarre episode last summer in which the London man accessed a Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare palliative care room and took a selfie with Leroux’s dying father. Leroux took her father’s ashes to Tuesday’s court proceedings. (DOUG SCHMIDT/Windsor Star) PHOTO BY DOUG SCHMIDT /Windsor Star
Pollock, the judge and the Crown and defence lawyers all appeared in the Windsor courtroom via Zoom, but Leroux and her husband John Reh sat in the public gallery, Leroux clutching a box containing her late father’s ashes.
“He said those words — ‘guilty.’ He admitted what he did was wrong,” Leroux told reporters later outside court. “I couldn’t have asked for anything more.”
Leroux said she’s suffered from PTSD “so severe … I can’t remember birthdays.” The episode left her scared for her safety but also determined to continue speaking out in support of the Pride community.
“I’m afraid, but I’ve got to be strong. I don’t want any youth to get afraid,” she said.
Holmes told the court that Pollock “may have done some research” to gain information on Leroux and her family. There had been a recent television news story on Leroux and Reh’s wedding, held at Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare so that the bride’s dying father could participate.
The prosecutor said Pollock had left flowers and a card with Leroux’s father, a man he didn’t know. She said the family was subsequently informed by Pollock that he was waiting for the dying man’s obituary so he could send more flowers.
As a result, Leroux told reporters, there has yet to be a published obituary for her father. “He should have an obituary,” she said, adding “it’s been hard.”
Holmes spoke of the “potential danger” this harassment presented.
On a brighter note, Leroux said the incident involving her father led to the Windsor-Essex Pride Fest hosting its first Drag Queen Storytime & Science Hour, which saw a Lanspeary Park tent packed with an audience of all ages last summer.
“Storytime, I said, is so important … it was beautiful,” said Leroux.
“Just because someone is a bigot and a homophobe doesn’t mean you can let them win,” she said.
Pollock’s London lawyer, Laura Ellis, told the judge the defence agreed with the facts read out by the Crown, but with a “caveat.”
She said her client “absolutely did not attend (Pride rallies and events) to terrorize or harass … that was absolutely not his intent attending these rallies.”
The maximum penalty Pollock faces for his criminal harassment summary conviction is two years less a day in jail.
In an interview to a CTV news reporter at a protest last summer at a London Pride storytime event, Pollock said it was “the sexualizing the outfits that they’re wearing while they’re reading to kids, I have an issue with that.”
Pollock still has a pending criminal case in London and has prior criminal convictions for obtaining sexual services on two occasions and distributing an intimate image without consent, according to court records.
dschmidt@postmedia.com
twitter.com/schmidtcity
Bizarre hospital selfie leads to Londoner's criminal harassment guilty plea
Bubba Pollock has pleaded guilty to criminal harassment for a bizarre episode in which took a selfie with a dying man in a Windsor hospital
Attachments
-
![pride1[1].jpg](/data/attachments/19/19115-6f6e50bd07f787203addb7957183cba5.jpg)
pride1[1].jpg
