(Versailles) Jean-Paul Guerlain’s companion, Christina Kragh Michelsen, was given a four-month suspended prison sentence for violence against the 86-year-old French perfumer, we learned Monday from a source close to the case.
At first instance, the one who was initially prosecuted for “neglect of a person unable to protect himself” had been acquitted by the Versailles Criminal Court (west of Paris) in October 2021.
A doctor had noted that the famous “nose”, which suffers in particular from incontinence, presented irritation attributed to a lack of care.
The court had noted that Christina Kragh Michelsen had been able to “obstruct care”, but that “this hindrance does not constitute the offense of neglect”.
The Versailles prosecutor’s office had appealed this release and Christina Kragh Michelsen was retried by the Court of Appeal, this time for “willful violence”, the qualification retained having been modified.
The 64-year-old Franco-Danish was also sentenced on Thursday for “moral harassment” against a former domestic employee of Jean-Paul Guerlain.
Christina Kragh Michelsen was pursued by Stéphane Guerlain, the son of her companion and two years her junior, who accuses her of taking advantage of her father, one of the largest fortunes in France, suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
“It is a very harsh judgment based on the sole statements of two life assistants paid by Stéphane Guerlain”, reacted the defense lawyer, Me Frédéric Bélot, who specified that he had appealed to the Court of Cassation.
“Stéphane Guerlain is relieved that the facts as they existed have been recognized. He himself was cleared of all the charges that Christina Kragh Michelsen had brought against him for lighting a counter-fire,” commented the lawyer for the perfumer’s son, Ms.e Pascal Koerfer.
The family quarrel is indeed not its first passage before the courts.
In June, Stéphane Guerlain, who was accused by his father’s partner of harassing her and having threatened her on several occasions, was released by the Versailles criminal court.
Christina Kragh Michelsen and Jean-Paul Guerlain met in 2005.
The couple even tried to get married, but, at the request of the son, who exercises the guardianship of the famous perfumer, justice had canceled this union on the grounds that Jean-Paul Guerlain was not in a condition to consent to it.