On the second day of the trial for attempted murder and rape of an ex-partner, the hearing of the civil party for three hours on Tuesday January 18 allowed the jurors of the Bordeaux Assize Court to shed new light the “outburst of violence” of the night of October 11, 2018 in Lormont and the events that preceded the tragedy.
“He said to me ‘you sleep with a lot of guys, you’re a bitch'”
It’s around 5 a.m. that night, “I hear a knock at the door“, says the victim. His ex-companion, who does not support the separation, breaks down the front door and, heavily alcoholic (2g / l of blood several hours after the fact), he tumbles into the bedroom.He strangles me, I struggle, he squeezes my neck with his hands. Asphyxiated, drowned, I saw my death. The door opens, they are my children. He tells them “your mother is going to die”. I hear this sentence from my children ” dad you’re going to kill mom “”.
“I am his object”
Standing at the bar of the Assize Court, the victim claims to have been raped that night. Whereas “the children are still there”, “he rips my shorts, and puts his fingers in my vagina”.
With the help of her eldest son, the young woman manages to escape but she is caught, pulled by the hair, dragged on gravel. “My head slammed against the tiles”, remembers the mother, who receives several punches and kicks. “Tufts of hair were found on the ground”, indicates the police investigator who intervened on the spot.
History of harassment: 1,088 phone calls in 4 months
During this second day of hearing, the Assize Court of Bordeaux also dissected “the toxic relationship” that the victim had maintained with the accused for fifteen years since their first meeting in 2003 in New Caledonia. “He was already drunk, he asked the same questions, had fits of jealousy and scenes of violence”. “Each time, he said he would not do it again”. Back in France, the couple settled in Floirac, near Bordeaux.
She a liberal nurse, he a sports animator, they then have two children. She remembers a daily life sometimes “positive“, of a man “loving, benevolent” but who turns into a violent companion as soon as he drinks alcohol. “Massive alcoholism. “Coming home from the evening, he sometimes urinated on the duvet of the bed thinking he was in the toilet.” A first handrail was filed in 2009 after new domestic violence during a vacation in Vendée.
The sexual violence, against a background of alcoholism, would have been regular during their fifteen years of common life. The young woman talks about unwanted sexual acts. “Rapes?” asks the president of the assize court. “Yes, I was his object, I accepted in spite of myself”.
The victim requests therapy and withdrawal from his companion. “I considered myself a battered, abused woman“. Alas, on December 31, 2017, after a drunken New Year’s Eve evening marked by a new crisis of jealousy and a rush, she announced that she wanted to separate.
“I felt like Jacqueline Sauvage”
The separation is very badly experienced by the father of the children. He made 1,088 calls to his former partner between January and April. A complaint is filed in the spring for telephone harassment before another for violation of the protective order. The relatives and the victim’s lawyer regret that despite these worrying signs and the complaints filed, the man was never interviewed by the police before October 11, 2018 and this “outburst of violence” which earned him a trial for attempted murder and rape of a spouse.
On the last day of the trial this Wednesday, the Assize Court of Bordeaux will hear the pleadings of the civil party, the indictment and the pleadings of the defense. The accused faces up to 30 years in prison.