The trial of two men accused of having kidnapped and abused an octogenarian at his home to extract an imaginary nest egg began on Monday, October 18 in Mende, in Lozère, a department where the crime rate is one of the lowest of France.
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Sébastien Pastot, short hair, black sweater and round glasses, immediately recognized the facts which earned him to appear before the Assize Court of Lozère, where "
blood crimes
" only occur "
once every 10 years
”, according to lawyers and the prosecutor of this uneventful city of 12,000 inhabitants between Clermont-Ferrand and Montpellier.
Tied up with electric cables
"
We wasted our life and, most importantly, we wasted the rest of his life
," added this 34-year-old mason, father of a boy and a girl whom he "
does not sees more
”since his incarceration in March 2019.“
I apologize to the family for the harm we may have done to him, I would understand if they do not accept them,
”he added.
At his side, his co-accused, Franck Théobald, 39, also acknowledges having participated in this burglary, on January 28, 2019, in Chastel Nouvel, a village perched at an altitude of 1000 meters, 5 km north of Mende.
Prosecuted for forcible confinement with a view to the commission of a crime, namely a robbery with a weapon, the two men face a sentence of 30 years of criminal imprisonment.
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That evening, Denys Tichit, 81-year-old retired aeronautical engineer, was sleeping in his house, away from this peaceful town, when two hooded men burst into his room.
One is armed with a rifle and holds him in cheek, the other ties him up with electric cables.
The loot: 60 euros and bottles of alcohol
For an hour, the intruders beat him to reveal the location of the safe that he does not yet have.
Denys Tichit will come out of it with ten broken ribs, a hematoma in the right eye and multiple wounds, in particular to the tongue, according to the report of the doctors.
The two men end up leaving the scene, without detaching their victim.
Their loot: 60 euros and bottles of alcohol.
Denys Tichit finally manages to free himself and to go to a neighbor, who sounds the alarm, around 2:00 am.
Since his attack, his state of health has "
sharply deteriorated
" and he now lives in a retirement home.
To the investigators, Denys Tichit immediately explains suspecting one of the men who came to do work at his home a little earlier.
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Footprints in the snow and genetic fingerprints found in the house quickly lead to two men living in the region, Sébastien Pastot, who had actually done work on the octogenarian, and one of his acquaintances, Franck Théobald. They were arrested on March 26, 2019. According to the investigation, Sébastien Pastot had proposed to Franck Théobald to achieve this "
blow
" during an alcoholic evening. The old man must have been rich since he had paid in cash, for about 3000 euros, the work done at his house.
If they confessed their participation in the burglary, the two defendants accuse each other of having struck the octogenarian.
Monday, the Assize Court focused on the personality of the two defendants, of an "
average intelligence
" and the banal course, both in grip with a problem of alcoholism.
The verdict is expected Wednesday afternoon.
