“The criminal situation is disastrous”: it’s one too many “slaps” for a defendant with a serious criminal record

Le procès s'est déroulé ce jeudi 20 juin, dans la salle correctionnelle du palais de justice d'Alès. MIDI LIBRE – CHARLES LEDUC

Un quinquagénaire, notamment condamné à 18 ans de prison pour viol avec violences dans les années 90, a comparu ce jeudi 20 juin, devant le tribunal correctionnel d’Alès, dans le Gard, après s’en être pris à sa compagne.

This 51-year-old individual finds himself in the dock at the Alès court on Thursday, June 20, after his partner's daughter, who lives in Cassagnoles, a small village in the north of Gard, alerted the police at the beginning of the month because he was drunk and breaking everything in the apartment and had just hit her mother. An altercation that began because the fifty-year-old had insulted his partner's two children, who had then come to their defense. Arrested and taken into custody, the accused, due to a lack of alcohol, had fallen into a coma and had even seen his vital prognosis engaged.

“If I had the means to explain to you, I would…"

In front of his judges, he admits what he is accused of, remembers everything that is said, “apart from the slap itself". He speaks of’“addiction" and struggles to justify behavior that he has been accused of since the beginning of the year : "If I had the ways to explain to you, I would…" The victim, for her part, does not become a civil party and ensures that the one she knows since they were 15 years old is "someone good, but not under alcohol". To the amazement of the court, she also showed herself ready to reopen her door to him, even if he attacked her daughters…

17 convictions recorded in the criminal record

"You will have to think about the sentences", says Quentin Larroque, the deputy public prosecutor, towards of the magistrates of the seat. "The situation (of the accused) on the criminal level is disastrous." For good reason, his criminal record includes 17 convictions, including one for violent rape in the 90s, which earned him a sentence of 18 years of incarceration. In addition, he has 18 months in prison suspended over his head following a trial for violence and damage in 2020… and the sentence enforcement judge (JAP) is in favor of revocation. Like the public prosecutor, moreover, who also demands three years in cell and continued detention.

A requisition of extreme severity"

Defense lawyer, Me Karim Derbal points to a “extremely severe requisition. We must keep a cool head […] We are asking you for three years for a slap.” He dwells on his client's personality and hammers home that “Madame was not in danger; she always controlled him. The only one who was really in danger was Monsieur, due to his alcoholism." The council is fighting to get a "mixed sentence", or even "the lightest sentence possible", while being aware that the defendant, who "must be treated, accompanied", will certainly be incarcerated at the end of the hearing.

Incarceration and a ban on stay

The sentence finally pronounced is mixed. This man with a heavy criminal record is sentenced to two years in prison, one of which is suspended probation. He will also have to serve the 18 months he had hanging over his head and is banned from staying in the Gard. His continued detention is ordered.

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