The main defendant in the Outreau case, Thierry Delay, was sentenced on Friday in Toulouse to two years in prison with continued detention for harassment and sexual assault on a disabled resident living in a health center in Haute-Garonne. The 56-year-old man, who has already served a 15-year prison sentence for the rape of his four children in particular, also received a five-year socio-judicial follow-up with an obligation of care and the ban to get in touch with the victim.
Prosecutor Justine Gay had requested three years of imprisonment against a "predator (...) who, after children in 2004, now attacks vulnerable adults." "We must support him in these pathologies, to stem this libido and I do not think that confining Mr. Delay is the solution," pleaded his lawyer Me El Hadji Gueye during the correctional hearing in Toulouse.
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The facts occurred between 2017 and 2019 in a center for patients with multiple sclerosis in Rieux-Volvestre where Thierry Delay had been placed in 2016, the year of his release. "I was in love with her. I touched her legs because she had soft skin, ” says Thierry Delay with difficulty in a wheelchair. He also admits having touched the resident's breasts, also in a wheelchair and suffering from multiple sclerosis, "but it was not bad," he said.
The victim, Ms. B., did not bring a civil action and was not present at the hearing. "The management of the (health) establishment and the residents say that you had a psychological hold on Mrs. B., that you insisted on having sex with her and that you constantly talked to her about the pornographic films that you watched" , launched President Romain Bonhomme to the defendant.
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The thick voice, Thierry Delay confirms, advancing: “It was because of my libido problems. When I received an injection (intended to restrict her sexual drive) in June 2019, I stopped bothering her. ” "Do you remember insulting her?" , asks Romain Bonhomme. "Ah yes yes," replied the defendant, who is also serving a six-month prison sentence for possession of child pornography images, certified in 2018 during a hospital stay. Thierry Delay said he was "aware" of his pathology and informed the court that he was asking for support and care. "You understand that it is not very reassuring to have Thierry Delay in his care establishment" , quipped the president.
Defense lawyer Gueye said the court's sentence "is a good decision" . "Given what he risked with recidivism, 14 years old, he is doing very well," he congratulated AFP, stressing the "need" for socio-judicial follow-up "perhaps be more effective ” than the one he has already benefited from. Thierry Delay had been sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment by the Pas-de-Calais assize court in 2004, for rape of twelve children, including his four sons. His ex-wife Myriam Badoui had also been found guilty of these acts and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
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