Marc Machin's story could have been the subject of a French remake of "
Making a Murderer
», This documentary series that divided America by exploring the flaws in its penal system.
In both cases: a white man wrongly convicted, freed years later thanks to DNA, then returned to prison for another crime.
But now, the comparison stops there.
Across the Atlantic, Steven Mary always claims his innocence, when the French accused him, has fully recognized the facts.
Marc Machin, one of the eleven victims of miscarriage of justice identified in France, appears before the assizes in Paris on Monday for the rape of a 22-year-old woman in April 2018. Two decades earlier, he had been wrongly accused in the case of the double murder of the Pont de Neuilly, then acquitted after a review trial.
And seven years behind bars.
Read also Marc Machin, the chaotic journey of a repeat offender
The memory of this sinister morning is still
"extremely vivid"
in memory of Agathe *.
After a drunken evening, this employee of a Parisian department store falls asleep with a colleague, in the 11th arrondissement.
Her host leaves the apartment at dawn, but takes care to leave the keys under the doormat, so that another friend can collect them later.
A tightly knit organization, if another man hadn't taken hold of the keychain.
Around 10 o'clock, an athletic individual, hooded and dressed in black gloves, appears in the room and threatens Agathe with a kitchen knife.
He imposes a fellatio on her, to which she has no other choice but to submit, fearing for her life.
The attacker then forces him to take a shower and brush his teeth, to erase all traces, then flees with his bank card.
DNA, "
the queen of evidence
"
Still under the shock, she files a complaint and very quickly, the judicial machine sets in motion: use of video surveillance, hearing of witnesses, analysis of seals ... It is thanks to what he himself called "
the queen of evidence
”that Machin is identified by investigators.
A genetic profile extracted from a trace of sperm taken from the young woman's skirt corresponds to that of Marc Machin, registered in the National Automated DNA File (Fnaeg).
Among the 17 mentions that fill his criminal record, two already concern sexual assault.
Another conviction, however, was withdrawn: in 2012, he was cleared of the murder of Marie-Agnès Bedot, after spending seven years behind bars.
His fight for freedom had at the time made the headlines of the Televised Newspapers, was told in an autobiographical book,
Seul contre tous
and had nourished multiple interviews in the press.
“I want to integrate into society.
(...) I am 26 years old and my life to build
”, he proclaimed at the time in the columns of the
Parisian
.
There followed a painful return to the shadows.
Read also Marc Machin: indicted for rape, he returns to prison
Justice awards him 663,320 euros in compensation for his years of life lost in prison, but the sum is fully squandered in a few months, in travel, hotels, perfumes, prostitutes and narcotics.
He survives thanks to the RSA, sometimes spends the night outside and accumulates legal setbacks.
Still followed by the reintegration services, Marc Machin was arrested three weeks after the incident, close to social housing where he resides.
Faced with investigators, he denies outright, then gives in under the weight of the evidence.
Against a background of alcohol and cocaine, Marc Machin says he wanted to commit a burglary, then was taken by an impulse, discovering the young woman jumping out of bed, naked and "
very sexy
".
"A born predator"
Agathe was there "
in the wrong place, at the wrong time
", laments the young girl in front of the examining magistrate. She has always refused to confront Marc Machin. “
My client is still deeply traumatized and fears media exposure. She tried to bury the memories at the bottom of her memory, but things have since amplified ”
, indicates her lawyer Maitre Aurélie Dufau, contacted by us. The latter will therefore make a request for a closed session, which is granted as of right in cases of rape.
How to explain the passage to the act, the origin of the impulse of the accused?
He “does
not have the profile of a sexual predator at all
,
”
assures one of his lawyers, Maître Adrien Gabeaud.
“
More than an aggressor or a serial rapist, Marc Machin is an opportunist, sometimes bordering on a predator,”
concludes the psycho-criminological expertise, presenting him as “
criminologically dangerous”.
The portrait of his relatives, and in particular his ex-partner, is hardly more reassuring: “
He has an aggressiveness that can emerge at any time and has a lot of impulses.
When he is under the influence of drugs, his nature is revealed.
He is a born predator ”,
certifies the one who had him convicted of domestic violence.
"
We are not replaying the Neuilly affair
"
From the early death of his mother, the tossing of foster family into foster family to the sexual abuse suffered in one of them, Marc Machin's journey was very early on in the Stations of the Cross.
"
His childhood started very badly, Marc, he always suffered",
admitted his father in the program Enter the Accused.
Very present at the time of his acquittal, his father no longer visits him since his new detention.
Just like his sister and his half-brother.
Marc Machin is today alone in the face of his old demons.
"
It is a lively skinned, a marginal,
reports to the
Figaro
his second lawyer, Maître Élise Arfi.
He never received the basics of education, of a framework, to live normally.
Marc Machin has never lived in real life.
He went from one extreme to the other. "
Marc Machin is the biggest equation I have ever had to deal with given his social and relational handicaps.
It is rare that we have someone without any point of attachment.
The head of the penitentiary integration and probation service, questioned by investigators from the judicial police.
Until Thursday, he appears for rape committed at gunpoint, extortion with a weapon, fraud, theft and home invasion and faces 20 years in prison.
Make no mistake: the victim is not in the box of the accused.
"
We do not replay the Neuilly case
," continues his lawyer.
But the court will still have to question the impact of these ten years when Marc Machin was constantly presented as the obvious culprit.
“
The prison destroys and the money does not repair this destruction.
He became what he had been told he was,
”says his lawyer.
* The first name has been changed.