Twenty years in prison were required on Wednesday July 6 against Joël Bourgeon for the murder of Martine Escadeillas, a young secretary who disappeared at the end of 1986 in the Toulouse area and whose body was never found.
There is "
no reasonable doubt about the guilt of Joël Bourgeon
", a former friend of Martine and her companion Thierry Milicevic, declared Advocate General Nicolas Ruff.
Before the Assize Court of Haute-Garonne, the prosecution once again invited the accused, who has been claiming his innocence since the start of his trial on Friday, to say what he did with the body of this woman, aged 24 years old when she disappeared.
During his indictment, Nicolas Ruff reviewed "
the serious and concordant bundle
" of clues that, in the absence of irrefutable evidence, the investigators put forward before this trial.
Recognizing "
errors
" since 1986 in the investigation, "
left fallow for years and years
", Nicolas Ruff however refuted that the confessions made by the accused in 2019, before retracting, were "
extorted
from him ".
“Mitigate some of this suffering”
The accused, now 58, was very close to Martine's companion.
They played football together, went on motorcycle trips and had been invited to lunch with the young woman's parents the day before she disappeared.
Arrested more than three decades later, he confessed to killing Martine, without specifying where the body was.
A week later, he retracted, arguing that his confession had been dictated to him by the investigators.
On Wednesday, shortly before the end of his indictment, the Advocate General noted that the accused "
does not say where the body is and continues to hurt the family
" of Martine, but also his own, also present in the large Hall.
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"
This hearing could have been an opportunity to alleviate some of this suffering
", but "
you did not let go
", added Nicolas Ruff.
He asked the jurors to sentence the accused to "
20 years' imprisonment
".
While Martine's relatives applauded the Advocate General, before the president called them to order, the daughters of Joël Bourgeon, aged 22 and 25, burst into tears.
For Martine's family lawyer, Frédéric David, whatever the outcome of the trial which is due to conclude on Wednesday evening, it will be marked by a form of "
failure
" if it does not make it possible to find the body of the young woman who disappeared more than 35 years ago.
