25 years of criminal imprisonment accompanied by the prohibition of French territory and the withdrawal of parental authority over his four children. Verdict of the Gironde assizes against a 44-year-old man, of Algerian nationality, who was tried in Bordeaux for having killed his wife in 2019 by hitting her several stab wounds including one fatal in the chest. His wife had been found dead in the common areas of the building where she lived in the Grand-Parc district of Bordeaux.
Several complaints of domestic violence
The couple, married in 2007, separated in 2017. The victim, a 32-year-old housekeeper, claimed since the divorce, which her husband refused. Also an Algerian national, she had filed several complaints of domestic violence in 2017 and 2019a few months before the tragedy.
We could have avoided this fatal outcome
“He harassed her. We could have avoided this fatal outcome if the police had intervened after these complaints, the evenings when he pounded on her door”explained Me Isabelle Desmoulins, who defends the interests of four children born of the union of the couple.
On the stand, the eldest daughter, aged 13, described a loving, devoted mother and a regularly violent father towards his wife, sometimes spending her nights on the doorstep or in the technical room of the building after their separation. The four children, aged between two and 11 at the material time, were placed in foster care after the tragedy.
The Advocate General had requested 30 years in prison.