A 21-year-old man was sentenced to 30 years in prison on Thursday by the Pyrénées-Orientales Assize Court for the murder and sexual assault in July 2019 of Priscillia Gonzales, an 18-year-old disabled woman.
On the night of July 6 to 7, 2019, during the firefighters' ball in Estagel, a wine-growing village 25 km from Perpignan, he had trained in the cemetery, tried to rape Priscillia Gonzales before stabbing her five times.
The girl had just turned 18 and suffered from mental impairment and mild motor disability.
She had been found the next morning between two graves, half naked.
Confused by his DNA, the accused admitted the facts.
He described himself during the trial as lonely and abused as a child.
“
Violence took hold of me
,” he said coldly on the stand.
Then, speaking of him in the third person: "
the body (note: the accused) jumped on him, undressed her, put her on a grave
".
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The young man was found guilty of "
murder, attempted rape and sexual assault on a vulnerable person
" and sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment with a two-thirds security period, accompanied by a socio-judicial follow-up of 20 years and a care order.
The Advocate General had requested life imprisonment with a 22-year security period against him, considering that his "
intention to kill (was) undeniable
".
But "
the jurors nevertheless took into account the young age
" and
the "catastrophic childhood
" of the young man and decided on a sentence below, notes Me Pierre Alfort, lawyer for the accused, who welcomes a "
decision fair
” and “
proportionate
”.
“
The family is satisfied because they know that he will spend at least 20 years in prison
”, reacted Me Catherine Thibaut de Montauzon and Me Gérald Brivet-Galaup, lawyers for the victim's family.
