“These women are victims of their executioner, but also of a certain incompetence”, denounce victims’ families

More and more families of victims are deciding to take legal action to denounce the failures of the State. It is estimated that in at least a quarter of cases, the victims of femicide had alerted themselves, sometimes repeatedly, to the threats they were experiencing.

One of the last families to have sued the State in this way is that of Nathalie Debaillie, killed by her ex-partner in Lille on May 27, 2019, at the age of 47. It is Nathalie’s brother, Nicolas Debaillie who carries the file, driven by cold anger. Last December, he filed the summons with the Paris court, through his lawyer, which was joined by Romain and Grégory, son and ex-husband of the forty-year-old.

In 2019, Nathalie Debaillie left her partner, Jerôme Tonneau with whom she had a relationship for two years. The latter refuses the breakup and makes her experience hell. For five months she cried out in the desert. “My sister had realized the danger she was in. This man’s threats were serious, and she knew it. There were slashed tires, tombstone photos sent via text messages and other intimidating phone calls. He was permanently in front of the bank building where Nathalie worked in Lille.”says Nicolas Debaillie.

Kidnapping in a van

“My sister’s fear was such that she decided to keep all the evidence of this harassment. She went to the police station four times. On three occasions, we only agreed to take a handrail. There is therefore only one formal complaint.”deplores Nathalie Debaillie’s brother.A complaint that no agent transmitted to the prosecutor. A complaint which did not result in any act of investigation or summons from the accused. The opposite even happened: Nathalie one day had to come and explain herself after Jerôme Tonneau filed a complaint against her for cell phone theft. It was just a phone he had given her during their two-year relationship.

Jérôme Tonneau promised Nathalie that he would one day put her in a car trunk and then delete her. This is precisely what he did without anyone stopping him. One morning, when she arrives at the entrance to her work parking lot, he electrocutes her and kidnaps her in a van then takes her to his home, helped by three Romanian nationals he has recruited for his project. Witnesses alert the police.

“Flaws at all levels”

The missioned officials took two hours to get to the home of the man who was a more than obvious suspect. They knock on the door. Nobody’s answering. They leave only to return two hours later. It is then too late. The investigation will then reveal that other women had previously filed complaints against Jerôme Tonneau for harassment or attempted strangulation. He will be tried at the assizes next June. “That justice condemns this man is one thing, but that should not prevent the State from recognizing that it could have prevented the death of my sister. There were flaws at absolutely every level“, denounces Nicolas Debaillie.

“Our goal is that what happened to my sister is useful, so that it does not happen again. Lessons must be learned from this tragedy”

Nicolas Debaillie, brother of a victim

at franceinfo

After the tragic death of Nathalie, there was a transfer, a reprimand and a warning among the agents of the Lille police station. It is “very insufficient” for the family of the forty-year-old. From the State, which she summons for gross negligence, she is claiming 600,000 euros for the damage suffered. Nicolas, Romain and Grégory want a hearing, a public examination of the failings. “We strive to ask ourselves questions. We have no answers, and we have the feeling that if no one really methodically points out the dysfunctions, the cause of women will not advance.” argues the bereaved brother.

Before this family, others took the same action against the State. This is the case, for example, of the parents of Chahinez Daoud, 31, mother of three children, burned alive by her ex-husband Mounir Boutaa, in the middle of the street, on May 4, 2021 in Mérignac in Gironde. She had alerted the police numerous times of the threats she was experiencing.

The parents of Sofya Rudeshko, 34, have chosen the same path and also intend to have the State’s serious fault recognized after their daughter was stabbed by her ex-companion Christophe Bernardet in 2021. The day before, she had been rejected from the Pau police station where she wanted to file a complaint for harassment and death threats. According to the officer who received it very briefly, the teams did not have time to register this complaint.

Taking on the state is no small challenge: the administration is a self-protecting machine. The chancellery does not communicate figures on state convictions for gross negligence after femicide. We have identified three. Cathy Thomas was the first to win this difficult battle, four years ago. Her sister Isabelle and her two parents were shot and killed by her sister’s ex-partner in 2014. The man was to be tried for violence against Isabelle but while awaiting his trial, he was left free, with the ban to approach his ex-partner. A ban that he absolutely did not respect. He followed her night and day everywhere, with complete impunity, without ever being summoned despite the complaints of the forty-year-old.

A murderer who then committed suicide in his prison cell even before being tried at the assizes. In 2020, the Paris court conceded a flaw in the institutions. Cathy Thomas received 100,000 euros. “That day, in front of the Paris court, I really had the feeling of being heard. Not all the reasons for my complaint were accepted, but all the same, it was the first time that an authority officially offered me condolences. Even six years later, it was important. Justice recognized that this ultra-violent man had not respected his judicial control and that given the repeated complaints of my sister, he should have been arrested and placed in detention.explains Cathy Thomas.

“This type of recognition amounts to saying to the families: ‘These women are victims of their tormentor, but also of a certain incompetence.'”

Cathy Thomas, sister of a victim

at franceinfo

“For my sister and my parents, it’s too late. I led this fight for those who are still alive, those who survive, to try to change things. But things don’t change fast enough. Every time when I hear on the radio talking about a new feminicide, it hurts me. All these women are my sister. And when we learn that the victim had filed a complaint or that the perpetrator was a repeat offender, with my husband, we are revolted”confides Cathy Thomas, with tears in her eyes.

In recent years, there has been the Grenelle on domestic violence, the proliferation of “serious danger” telephones, anti-reconciliation bracelets to protect threatened women.

Report dysfunctions

But feminicides continue in France. The collective “Feminicides by companion or ex” has already identified 11 in 2024. It counted 102 last year. The government has communicated the figure of 94 in 2023 and therefore a decrease compared to 2022, but this data must still be consolidated.

“In cases like these where there are deaths of women, we need global and general institutional work of introspection during which we ask the right questions: what went wrong? Why did the police take a handrail and not a complaint? Why was nothing sent to the public prosecutor, when several lights were red? Why the violent man was never arrested ?”annoys Me Isabelle Steyer, lawyer specializing in domestic violence.

She appeals to bereaved families to take legal action when the State has failed, and an appeal to those responsible to really do more. At a time when the concept of restorative justice is enjoying real success, she begins to dream of a commission which would work retrospectively on feminicides to receive families during meetings where police officials, or even ministers, would present official apologies for the dysfunctions of the police or justice when there were any. We are still quite far from it today.