"I really believed that I was going to give up my life there": the chilling testimony of Margaux Pinot

Yes, even if I didn't want to,

He keeps his momentum, he lies and he continues to want to make me look like a hysterical woman."

Obviously, I was very surprised because everyone seemed on my side, I was told that it would be over soon and that he would be punished for his violence against me.

Until that judgment and that moment when I realize that I don't control anything anymore, that I don't know what's going on, that I'm afraid to go home.

The facts took place during the night from Saturday to Sunday, around two o'clock in the morning. I first got home around midnight, after eating out with friends. It was agreed that we meet at my house with Alain so that I take him the next day to the airport, where he was to take a plane to Israel. He arrived around two in the morning, drunk. He asked me to print some papers for Israel, which I did, while pointing out that I had still waited two hours for him. Then I went to bed. He joined me in bed, telling me that there was no point in taking him to the airport, that he would take an Uber and that I could rest.

Two minutes later, he got up, turned on the light in the hallway and got dressed.

I asked him what he was doing and he told me that I would never understand anything anyway.

He told me he preferred to go home and I told him:

. It was there that he started to make mean, violent comments. He started telling me that my career was screwed up, that he would find someone to fuck me in judo, that I was stupid, destructive. I then went back to my bed and covered my ears because I used to hear such words from him. I'm fed up with it sticking around in my head for weeks on end. I feel devalued, I have had less self-confidence for months. There, he approached the bed, he gestured towards me and I pushed him away. That's when he grabbed me by the hair and pulled me down to the floor to the left of the bed. I was on my back and he straddled me. He started punching me, right and left.I yelled at him to stop. I didn't even defend myself, I didn't know where my arms were. I really tried to reason with him and wanted to get up. I managed to go to the next room where he caught up with me and put me down. He started to take my head and hit it several times on the ground.

After this episode, he wanted to strangle me.

Or anyway, he put his hands around my neck.

I was on my back again, I tried to push him back with my legs so that he had less grip.

I told him:

He told me okay, that we are going to discuss two minutes.

This is the moment he released his hands and I was able to push him aside.

I was able to get up.

In the hallway, he caught up with me again, we projected each other on the walls.

At that point, I thought to myself that either I was able to extricate myself from him or I was dead.

It was my instinct that spoke.

I had to get out of my apartment to survive.

I opened the door and started running.

He followed me, we found ourselves in the hallway of the building.

He held me back one last time by the hair.

I shouted on the stairs as loud as possible "help!" I went up to my neighbors. They asked me what had happened. I told them that I had just been punched by my trainer, by my boyfriend. They took care of me and called the police, who arrived ten minutes later. The firefighters had arrived a little earlier. I really thought I was going to give up my life there. It is my spirit of warrior, of fighter as well as judo which saved me. I was able to resist his blows, which were numerous. I had never faced such violence, I had never received blows in the face like these. I don't wish it on anyone. Today I speak for the women who have died in such situations because they do notdid not have the physical means to cope. I am grateful for judo, and for the life I see differently now. Glad to be alive tonight, and sad for the destitution of the audience the other day.