A 22-year-old was sentenced to two months in prison on Thursday February 17 by the Pau criminal court. He is found guilty of having banged his 73 year old grandfather, of having pushed and threatened his grandmother, of having damaged their house and of having insulted the gendarmes. In court, he admitted the facts that occurred on Monday February 14 near Orthez in western Béarn.
This young man explains these violent acts by his alcoholism. In court he says he does not remember everything. For example, he doesn’t remember punching his grandfather, or shoving his grandmother. And for good reason, he had drunk vodka and beer in quantity. However, he remembers doors and windows smashed with rage as well as the rain of insults addressed to the gendarmes called to intervene. “I inherited bad alcohol from my father”he explained to the court. “Thinking about it I’m completely wrong. I’ve reached a point of no return”he admits.
But in front of the judge his grandmother stands up straight and defends him. “I want to tell him that I love him and that I just want him to heal”, she says, almost trembling. When the court has retired to deliberate, she sits down and blows him a kiss. Since boxing he gives it back to him, before lowering his eyes visibly moved. A few minutes later the condemnation falls: prison and above all an obligation to be treated and to work. He must also pay several hundred euros in damages to three gendarmes he insulted.