Until 2012, he was the very incarnation of the "dolce vita", the name of the restaurant that François Di Pasquali operated in Saint-Etienne (Loire).
Married, father and business manager, this man, 48 years old today, had never before had to deal with justice.
An image of a model citizen who was first chipped, before shattering.
For the first time, in April 2012, the man was sentenced to 18 months in prison for domestic violence against his wife.
He had notably tried to run over her at the wheel of his car, blaming her for her real or supposed infidelity.
But this is not what earned him to appear today on the list of criminals - sexual in this case - the most wanted by Interpol, relayed this Tuesday by a call for witnesses from the French investigative services, including the national brigade Search for Fugitives (BNRF), launched a year ago in his footsteps.
During the investigation into the violence against his wife, the DNA of François Di Pasquali had indeed been taken.
Two months later, by comparison via the DNA file, it appeared that this same DNA had been found, in 2009, at a particularly sordid crime scene.
At the time, when the restaurateur had just finished his service, he had crossed in the street an old lady of 85 years, ill with Alzheimer's and confused.
Di Pasquali had proposed to the octogenarian to accompany her by car to her home, in the suburbs of Saint-Etienne.
There, after she offered him a glass of water, he raped her.
At the end of an investigation complicated by the victim's absences, neither the rapist's vehicle nor his physical characteristics could be revealed.
Only a trace of semen in the bathroom revealed DNA, which turned out to be Di Pasquali's.
Absent from his trial in 2016
“Placed in police custody in June 2012, he began by denying, before recognizing, in the face of evidence, a consensual sexual relationship, remembers a source close to the case.
He even went so far as to say that the lady had provoked him… ”This had not prevented him from being indicted for rape of a vulnerable person.
In the process, the restaurateur's lawyer multiplied the remedies, and managed to obtain release under judicial supervision in January 2013, after six months of pre-trial detention.
For a while, Di Pasquali then worked as a cook.
But three years later, the accused had never shown up for his trial at the Assizes in June 2016, at the end of which he was sentenced to ten years in prison.
“From this period, he totally disappeared,” notes Commissioner Jacques Croly-Labourdette, the head of the BNRF.
In view of the individual's "profile and dangerousness", the choice was therefore made to communicate more widely to put an end to a run that is not one in the proper sense of the term.
“This is not a man who is part of organized crime, and could have the corresponding relays, explains the boss of the BNRF, seized a year ago from the file.
What we think is that he was able to rebuild his life, why not abroad, with a companion and an entourage who are probably unaware of his past.
"
Di Pasquali could hide for example in Italy, his country of origin.
As far as it is, probably abroad, the men of the BNRF intend to flush him out.
