Sentences of up to two years in prison were pronounced on Tuesday by the Rouen Court of Appeal against five guards of the detention center of Val-de-Reuil (Eure), who were retried for violence against a detainee in February 2020.
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One of the guards, Erwin D. was sentenced to 4 years imprisonment, 2 of which were suspended.
At first instance, in April 2020 in Evreux, he was sentenced to two years, one of which is firm.
The court of appeal confirmed the definitive ban on exercising the function of guard in the prison administration (AP), a judicial source told AFP.
Cédric D. was sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment, 6 of which were suspended, with a definitive ban from practicing. In its judgment, the Rouen Court of Appeal found the two men guilty of "
willful violence
" and "
use of forgery
". Two other guards, Sylvain O. and Matthieu S. were sentenced to 6 months and three months and found guilty of "
not preventing a crime affecting the physical integrity
" of the victim. The fifth, Frédéric K., for whom the Attorney General had appealed, saw his 4-month sentence at first instance maintained. The defendants' requests not to register convictions in the criminal record were all rejected.
The facts occurred on February 7, 2020 when an inmate, Lee-Bert F., reported as "
potentially aggressive
", refused a pat-down search, striking a pen in the chin of a guard. According to the account of the guards, the inmate struggled, tried to hit officers and hit his head on the ground "
in a fit of rage
". But Lee-Bert F. told investigators he was violently tackled to the wall after refusing the pat, then pointed his pen "
without thinking
" in the direction of the supervisor. He said that the other supervisors threw themselves on him, that one of them placed a knee on the back of his neck, preventing him from breathing, and then thathe had been kicked in the face with his heel.
Several medical certificates attested to a complete occlusion of an eyelid, bruises in each eye socket and blurred vision in one eye. At the hearing on February 22, the public prosecutor's office requested up to four years in prison, three of which are closed. The defendants, aged 36 to 52 and placed under judicial supervision, had generally admitted the facts. The five guards will serve their sentences at home under electronic surveillance.