'When she spoke badly to me, I didn't control my nerves': 16-year-old ex-girlfriend hit and nearly run over

Le procès s'est tenu au palais de justice de la capitale des Cévennes. MIDI LIBRE – CHARLES LEDUC

After a month of pretrial detention, a 20-year-old man was tried on Monday, August 5, before the Alès criminal court in Gard, for serious violence.

The tone was set from the opening of the hearing at the Alès Criminal Court on Monday, August 5. The actions of which the 20-year-old, already well-known to the courts and who has just spent a month in pre-trial detention, were initially the subject of prosecution for attempted murder by an ex-spouse, before being reclassified. They took place more than four months ago and an arrest warrant had been issued against the accused, who had then been arrested and taken into custody on June 29, in Hérault, after refusing to comply.

A romantic relationship lasting a few months

On March 24, in Alès, this young man, recently released from prison, and his 16-year-old girlfriend had just separated after a relationship of a few months. The night before, the teenager had seen him in front of her house; she allegedly insulted him and discovered, the next morning, her mother's car vandalized. Suspecting his ex (who also admits to being the author of the damage), a meeting is set for the end of the afternoon to explain…

In the car, the situation worsens

In a car driven by the Alésien, the situation quickly escalated. The young girl, who had clearly just uttered insults, very sensitive when directed at members of the travelling community, received a first round of blows. Further on, the defendant violently pulled her out of the car. Fleeing, she found herself behind the vehicle when the driver suddenly put the car into reverse and accelerated, apparently pretending to run her over. The victim explained that she had jumped over a low wall to avoid the tragedy. But the defendant did not stop there: he got out of his car and hit his former girlfriend again. The scene ends when the local residents intervene…

He claims not to have wanted to hit his ex-girlfriend

From his box, the defendant "admits (his) wrongs". And he added: “When she spoke badly to me, I didn't control my nerves.” On the other hand, he rejects any murderous intention when he was at the wheel and the victim was behind the car. “I was angry; I accelerated hard", he assures. “At no time did I want to hit her!” The president of the hearing, Cécile Baessa, nevertheless does not let such behavior pass and tries to reason with him:“This is very serious! Can you imagine”? All this for words spoken by a little girl!”

The prosecution is requesting continued detention

Deputy public prosecutor Quentin Larroque clearly has no intention of letting this go either. To hear him tell it, we are “at the high end of the spectrum of violence that can be committed against a woman”. He talks about their “repetition”, their “intensity”, and speaks of a “spine-chilling scene”, as well as a victim who had “the fright of his life”. In short, “what was done was appalling” and the representative of the public prosecutor is requesting four years in prison, two of which are suspended on probation for two years, accompanied by continued detention.

The defense "contests the disproportion"

In defense, Me Cyril Malgras has "a very different reading of this case" and "contests the disproportion" that he has just heard from the prosecutor. The defendant “recognizes that his impulsiveness, his susceptibility, could have played tricks on him”, declares the Montpellier lawyer. But he believes that the sentence requested is too harsh. All the more so since for the scene that the young woman describes when she is behind the vehicle, “the victim's statements are not corroborated by anything”. During a long argument, counsel evokes his client's difficult, even traumatic, youth, marked in particular by a series of deaths. Mr. Malgras considers that “prison, in (his) opinion, is not the solution”. He does not want a committal warrant ; he is fighting to get a sentence that can be reduced, with a probationary suspension.

What the criminal court decides?

After deliberating, the magistrates sentenced the 20-year-old Alès resident to three years of imprisonment, two of which were suspended for two years, and ordered his continued detention. President Baessa provides a clarification, before the defendant is taken away by the prison administration officers: “The court has clearly understood that there was no intention of homicide, but there is aggravated violence.”

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