Homophobic tags against the mayor of Bessan: the authors sentenced in Béziers to 105 hours of community service

Particularly infamous tags were found on the walls of the town of Bessan in November and December 2023. Bessan town hall

Particularly infamous tags were found on the walls of the town of Bessan in November and December 2023. Bessan town hall

Two young people from Bessan were sentenced to 105 hours of community service for having written insulting and homophobic tags on the walls of the town of Bessan last November and December. One of the two defendants announced that he wanted to appeal the judgment.

This Friday, May 24, two young people from Bessanne were prosecuted for having damaged public property, insulting a representative of the order (a gendarme, Editor's note) and insulting the mayor because of his sexual orientation. All this via tags written on walls. There were around twenty registrations in the commune of Bessan, in November and December 2023.

The two young people aged 18 and 19 were sentenced to 105 hours of community service to be carried out over the next 18 months.
If they do not comply with the court’s sanction, they face two months of detention. They will also have to pay 400 € fine and reimburse the damage repaired by the municipality. They will pay 1 € of moral damage to the mayor of the town, Stéphane Pépin-Bonnet and 500 € to the police officer who was outraged. They will also have to pay part of the victims' lawyer fees and participate at their own expense in a citizenship course.

One year including six months suspended sentence required

The representative of the public prosecutor had requested a similar sentence for the two defendants, i.e. 12 months of detention including 6 months with a probationary suspension. The rest of the sentence can be adjusted depending on the file that would be presented to the sentence enforcement judge. A citizenship course was also required by the representative of the public prosecutor.

For the defense of the two defendants Messrs Monsarrat and Costes: "The place of these two young people is not in detention. The requisitions are very high even though there is only a bundle of clues that lead to evidence. We do not have the same reading of this file as you. It’s not because we find the same paints as those used on the walls at home that they are guilty. It is also not because the videos allow us to identify the clothes they would wear that it is them. It’s an incriminating investigation that was carried out because often in Bessan, when there is something stupid, they say it’s them. No, we can't settle for that, they risk prison."

On November 24 and December 12, 2023, homophobic tags appeared in seven places in the commune of Bessan, but also insults towards a particular gendarme. The municipality's video protection cameras quickly made it possible to recognize 10 individuals, two of whom were particularly targeted.

A gendarme, a merchant and the mayor were particularly targeted.
It must be said that drug trafficking had been revealed in the town and that responsibility for the arrests which followed was attributed to the gendarme in particular, to the trader, but also to the mayor of the village.

Glib defendants

In front of the judges, the two defendants will not give up. They will even show a certain haughtiness and a lot of casualness during their explanations."We are on these videos and it’s just a pure coincidence. We did nothing. Everything blames us for nothing. The gendarme comes to my mother for something I didn’t do. He has a problem with me. Not the other way around."

Not much will come out of the debates since the two young people will deny from start to finish having committed any tag whatsoever. However, during the searches, the investigators will find spray paints which correspond exactly to those used for the tags. Clothing identical to that seen in the videos will be identified. Even if the defense lawyers will try to demonstrate that this is not true.

"50 % of elected officials no longer want to stand for election"

For the mayor of Bessan, present at the hearing, but who did not wish to speak, Me Hiault-Spitzer will plead contempt aggravated by the homophobic character. "This issue has a particular color when we know that 50% of elected officials no longer wish to stand for election because of the threats or incivility committed against them. This is an alarming context which is illustrated here again. If the mayor is there it is because there is a particular attack on his function and all this beyond the homophobic character. But he’s not here to make money. Just to make these two young people understand that what they did is unacceptable."

One of the two defendants, unhappy with the judgment, announced his intention to appeal. With a suspended sentence hanging over his head for drug trafficking, he is at serious risk of the imprisonment he had been able to avoid until then.

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