Is a police officer accused of acts of violence legitimate to lead a group fighting against domestic violence? Neither his ex-spouse nor his lawyer understand how such an appointment was possible. They react in this extract from “Additional investigation”.
“Incomprehension, revolt, feeling of helplessness”: all these mixed feelings, this is what the ex-partner of a gendarme felt when opening the newspaper, on February 22, 2023. On a full page, an article announces the creation of a new unit dedicated to intra-family violence . The chief warrant officer named at its head appears in the photo, surrounded by his team. For his ex-wife, it’s a shock.
“Being in this position when he himself is the author of violence… I wonder (if he) will be objective enough to treat the facts while being neutral.”
The ex-partner of a police officerto “Further investigation”
This mother accuses her ex-partner of violence against her daughter and harassment against her. She filed a first complaint in 2020, which, according to her, he “ordered to be removed under penalty of vengeance.” A revenge that she says she suffers in the form of exchanges “insulting, disrespectful, defamatory, contemptuous and incessant.”
Almost two years later, she alerted the gendarme hierarchy of this conflict context. She explains that she was contacted again by the second in command of the group. He told her, according to her, “that he was completely unaware, after a year and a half, of a complaint filed against one of his men.” The gendarme was informed of his letters by one of his superiors, and he in turn filed a complaint against his former partner for harassment and defamation.
How could this gendarme then accused of acts of violence be appointed to this position?
For the lawyer of the ex-spouse, knowing that“he there is a complaint for violence against a minor, which was closed without further action but which exists, and a complaint for harassment currently being processed”, his appointment as head of the new unit dedicated to the fight against domestic violence is incomprehensible.
“For me, it’s surreal that this person, during the criminal proceedings and the criminal investigation, is appointed to this position. I don’t understand. I don’t even understand how this is possible, in reality.”
The ex-spouse’s lawyerto “Further investigation”
To try to find out more, the journalist from “Complément d’investigation” then goes to this gendarme’s brigade, with a discreet camera… and falls face to face with him.
Very comfortable, the gendarme said to himself “referent on this topic (not only domestic violence, but more broadly intra-family violence) for three, four years. A subject he claims to know “long, wide and diagonal”. Asked about the complaints he is the subject of, he will not “no comments”. He believes he does not have “nothing to be ashamed of”; his commander, who arrived shortly after, won’t say anything more.
After this filming, the ex-partner will learn of the dismissal of the complaints filed. Asked on numerous occasions, the Gendarmerie indicated to “Complément d’investigation” that the official was no longer in charge of this unit.
Extract from “Domestic violence: when the aggressor wears the uniform”, a document published in “Additional investigation” on November 23, 2023.
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