He comes to testify after his wife. He is one of the many first cousins of Nordahl Lelandais, his favourite, the one he considers “his brother”they were practically raised together.
Raised like brothers
Besides, they are a bit alike: both served in the army, before leaving on failure. They used cocaine together, in secret from their family. They like to party. But the comparison stops there. The accused is a “labor anorexic”, his cousin gets up every day at two in the morning to go to work.
“I had complete confidence in him, to the point of having chosen him to be the godfather of my second daughter, the one he sexually assaulted, on the night of July 10 to 11, 2017, while he was on vacation with me‘ he said at the bar.
Depression and internment
And he continues: “_I have hate, right now, I’m holding back_. I’m disgusted, he manipulated us. At the start, I was convinced that he had done nothing, that it was a mistake. We cut ties when he confessed for little Maëlys. And we felt betrayed a second time when we learned in October 2018 that he had sexually assaulted our daughter.”
The parents of the child refused to see the video of this attack, which the accused had filmed with his cell phone. But they identified their daughter in photos. “Following all this, I had a big depression and I was treated in a psychiatric hospital so that I would not hurt myself.
“Now you have to unpack your bag”
Since then, his cousin refuses to pronounce the name of Nordahl Lelandais, he says NL. He turns to the accused who, in his cubicle, meets his gaze. “_We want the truth_, you said you loved me, I loved you too, but it’s over. Now you have to unpack your bag.”
Questioned by his lawyer, Maître Caroline Rémond, the cousin confessed: “We no longer trust anyone since this story. We no longer want to entrust our children or see them go to camp, to protect them.” He says he discovered his cousin’s homosexual inclinations in the press. And about children? “I knew he liked pretty girls, but not that he was into children.”
Erase NL from their lives
The couple is followed by a psychologist and ended up telling their daughters what had happened. “Because to protect them, we had to lie to them for 4 years. My daughter was asking for her godfather, it was horrible. Besides, we have taken steps to ensure that he is no longer her godfather. We’re going to do a little baptism.” explains his wife at the bar.
What does Nordahl Lelandais feel when he sees thus, for five days, parading at the bar all these people, family, friends, ex-companions, who loved him and who, today, look at him with horror? Impossible to know.
“I’m a coward, I practiced this on a sleeping child” he said “_What I did is disgusting but I don’t know why I did it_. I knew it was wrong. I filmed to review the images, but then I deleted them” Tries to explain Lelandais who continues: “I did not sexually assault Maëlys“.
An accused who does not give up
Although he sometimes shows a sign of weakness, by wiping his eyes, lowering his head or suppressing a sob before speaking, he has rather shown throughout this first week of hearings that he intended not to give up. He faces the questions and, even if he doesn’t say much, in the end, he talks a lot.