With impressive composure, a woman who witnessed an atrocious attack by Jacques Rançon shared her experience for the documentary Let the accused enter, broadcast on France 2 in May 2021. A terrifying man who returns to the media spotlight due to his appeal trial for the murder of 20-year-old Isabelle Mesnage in 1986. In the television program, we can see the brutality and dangerousness of this man who had already been convicted in 2018 for the murder of two other women, Moktaria Chaïb and Marie-Hélène Gonzalez, betrayed by his DNA. Another person, Sabrina, managed to survive her aggression in March 1998 and the witness Marie-Line returns to this traumatic episode.
“I was busy preparing the meal, then I heard screams. Howls that I often describe as bestial. It was really terrifying to me. I leave my house and on my doorstep, I manage to understand that the noise is coming (…) just in front of my house. I see a person lying down, I see the feet, and a person kneeling right next to it”, explains Marie-Line with precision. His arrival on the scene scares the aggressor away. “I see that he has in his hands a knife with a substantial blade. I realize that these are not punches but stabs. Because there was blood everywhere.“
The scene is so violent that it forgets the face of its author: “From that moment, I have a blank. I was still shocked by this scene which was really horrible, terrifying. And above all the feeling that the person who was just attacking little Sabrina was really determined to kill her.” Despite the horror, the presence of this resident saved the life of the young woman.
That evening, Jacques Rançon violently attacked Sabrina in Perpignan, three months after having killed and mutilated Mokhtaria Chaïb, aged 19, like her. “A lady came to save my life“, said the young woman during the trial. In a coma for several days, Sabrina managed to rebuild herself, to get married and start a family of four children. But she never completely recovered from that evening- there, which left him with a 32 cm scar on his stomach.