The fisherman drove his boat into windsurfers in Frontignan: 18 months in prison and banned from returning to the scene

L’affaire s’inscrit dans un contexte tendu entre les pêcheurs et les adeptes des sports de glisse sur l’étang d’Ingril à Frontignan. Illustration Midi Libre – FRANCK VALENTIN

The tension between fishermen and water sports enthusiasts regarding the use of the Ingril pond in Frontignan reached a violent episode on July 22, when a fisherman drove his boat at full speed toward three stationary windsurfers.

“I'm so fed up, I've lost it. Last time, they broke my nets, and I paid 10,000 euros”, declared this fisherman from Sète after his outburst on the Ingril pond in Frontignan on July 22. The 55-year-old man had deliberately driven his boat into three stationary windsurfers, slightly injuring two of them. He had also hit their boards and sails with a boat hook (a pole with a hook), damaging them. Extreme illustration of the tension that has reigned on this site for over a year between fishing professionals and windsurfing and kitesurfing enthusiasts.

He cuts the kitesurfing ropes

On Friday July 26, the accused appeared before the Montpellier Criminal Court for the events of July 22, but also for an altercation that occurred on May 18 with a Swiss kitesurfer. The latter had explained to him that he had been pushed by the wind onto the fishing area. While he wanted to apologize, the fisherman had cut the ropes of his kite. The holidaymaker had to walk two hours in this shallow expanse of water to reach the shore…

“The engine and the propeller passed over them”

The three windsurfers were chatting, leaning on their boards from where they had gotten off, when they saw the boat heading straight for them. One of them had the reflex to go under the water. At the helm, another recounts this mind-blowing scene.”“I put my board up like a shield, otherwise the boat would have passed over me. I saw my life flash before my eyes!” Among the three friends, one will be injured in a foot while trying to avoid the boat, another in a lip, while freeing himself with his equipment. “The engine and the propeller went over them. If they had been children, there would have been a death!”, adds Me Corine Pivard, the lawyer of the three young men.

In the dock, the fisherman repeats that”“a week before, they had broken my nets”. But the president, Marie-Josèphe Roblez, reframes the debates: “I understand the dispute over the use of this pond, but I don't want to get involved in this discussion. We are judging violence that has no reason to be.”

“He is at his workplace, and you are here for a leisure activity”

The defendant's lawyer, Marc Gallix, nevertheless pleads the exasperation of professionals, faced with windsurfers and kitesurfers who do not respect the prefectural decree which defines the perimeter and times allocated to board sports. “My client is a man who works very hard. He is in debt. When we call him to tell him that all his nets are damaged, it starts to mount&hellip It's like when farmers see an army of party-goers arrive and crush the crops.” And to address the three civil parties: “He has been at his workplace for 35 years, and you come for a leisure activity.”

But this is not the first time the fisherman has acted out. Twenty mentions in the criminal record, in particular for having driven towards the boat of the gendarmerie and the coastal unit of maritime affairs, during a check.

Boat confiscated

The prosecutor, Alexia Diot, emphasizes her relentlessness during this fit of anger: five trips back and forth with her boat. “What tells me you're not going to do it again ?”, she asks the defendant, pointing out “extremely serious facts". She is requesting 18 months in prison, 8 of which are suspended with probation, under an electronic tag, and a ban on appearing on the Ingril pond, even if the court's decision is appealed, and the confiscation of the boat (which the defendant had disguised after the events, so that investigators would not find it).

The court followed the prosecution's requests. Benefiting from a reduction in his sentence under the tag, the fisherman was able to leave detention, but he will no longer be able to fish on the pond, will have to compensate the victims and receive treatment to control his anger.

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