The trial of a femicide committed in 2015 in Hazebrouck in the North, opened on Tuesday in Douai. The victim had alerted the police several times for acts of domestic violence.
The trial of Hocine Hamoudi opened on Tuesday March 14 in Douai. This man is accused of having killed and raped his partner, Sandra, whose last name is hidden to protect her children, in 2015 in Hazebrouck, in the North. He is appearing until Friday March 17 before the North Assize Court.
During this first day of hearing, several testimonies illustrated the violence of the facts. First that of the firefighter who arrived at the victim’s home on May 1, 2015. It was Rodolphe, Sandra’s eldest son, who ran panicked to the fire station. He screams, “He killed her, she’s dead, come help me, she’s dead!”the firefighter discovers Sandra’s body, tries cardiac massage, in vain, it is already too late.
A police officer present at the scene explains that he has dealt with a lot of domestic violence in his career, “but a scene of such violence, never”. A violence described by the medical examiner with this terrifying figure: 143 lesions observed on the body of the victim with multiple fractures, in the skull, in the jaws, on the nose, the ribs, the legs, the arms. Two knives were used, scissors, forks as well as chair rungs. Unusual injuries according to the doctor who adds: “we usually see them in road accidents or after falls from great heights”.
The accused does not admit the rape, nor the intention to kill
The accused acknowledges the facts but minimizes some of them. “Yes it was I who struck the blows” he said in the glass box, “I’m guilty of it”. Hocine Hamoudi recognizes the blows given but not the rape. He recognizes the blows, but it was without the intention to kill according to him, he does not recognize the murder. The accused addresses Sandra’s family, without really looking at her “to see her here is very strong” he says, “I want to ask for a big pardon, but even the word pardon is too small, tiny”.
A little later, Hocine Hamoudi quotes Sandra when the President of the Court reviews her criminal record. “Don’t talk about my mother, don’t say my mother’s name!” loose Rodolphe, the victim’s eldest son, his eyes filled with anger. Sandra’s family is present in large numbers, there are her four children, Rodolphe, but also her two sisters and her brother. The victim’s three sisters are also there, as is his mother, who appeared very affected, often with a wet face, on the verge of discomfort at times and who asks for support to walk.
Several complaints filed against the accused by the victim
This case was marked by multiple dysfunctions. The victim had repeatedly alerted the police. In June 2014, Sandra filed a first complaint after going to the emergency room. Her face is swollen and her body covered in bruises, she evokes punches from her companion and even blows from a screwdriver. At the origin of the dispute: her intention to stop prostituting herself for him. A month later, she withdraws her complaint under pressure from Hocine Hamoudi, she says she lied, the case is dismissed. In April 2015, while the police had intervened several times in her home, Sandra was attacked again by Hocine Hamoudi who went to her home and broke the window of the veranda with a bicycle.
She files a complaint but receives a recall for having threatened her companion with a knife. Hocine Hamoudi is summoned for a hearing two months later, but is not judged in immediate appearance and does not undergo judicial review. Two weeks later, he kills his girlfriend.
At the time, Hocine Hamoudi already had 11 convictions in his criminal record. He has since been sentenced to three years in prison for violence and pimping on another woman. Released in the midst of the covid epidemic when it was necessary to reduce prison overcrowding, he is now again behind bars, in pre-trial detention, another companion, accusing him in turn of rape and violence.