A 70-year-old woman is on trial from Thursday by the Charente-Maritime Assize Court for having tried to kill her husband in March 2018, when he was preparing to leave her after half a century of living together. .
The spouse, also in his seventies, was to leave the next day to settle down with a new companion when his wife stabbed him twice in the chest at their home in Saint-For-Sur-Gironde, near Saintes where the trial is being held until 'See you Friday.
"
He partly dodged the blows
", tells AFP Bénédicte Bertrand, lawyer for this former retired maintenance worker who, "
in front of the tenacity of his wife who was trying to hit him again
", would have him
knocked him down by kicking him in the legs.
“
He took the knife from her by injuring his hands, before taking refuge with his daughter Valérie who lives next door
”.
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This night from March 6 to 7, 2018, the spouses had just had a last intimate relationship, consented, although their separation was recorded - in the afternoon, a family meeting had taken place to determine who would now take care of one of the couple's two daughters, severely disabled.
The wife then got up from the bed to come back with a knife and hit her husband.
In the bedroom or a corridor, the versions diverge: the Assize Court will try to clarify the circumstances of the facts, which are not disputed in themselves.
For Me Bertrand, “
this man, the victim of an attempted murder, finds himself sidelined by his family and feels a little guilty.
If he hadn't wanted to leave his wife, she wouldn't have stabbed him
."
“
He asks himself questions
” while his daughters “
consider him responsible
” for the situation and his wife declares “
that she still loves him
”, adds the lawyer.
Francesca Satta, who defends the accused whose criminal record was clean, evokes "
a situation of perdition
" for the two parents confronted, in their last decade of life together, with the accidental death of a son then with the stroke of one of their daughters.
The accused “
made a suicide attempt shortly after the events.
She was intent on killing herself, she had no desire to kill her husband.
She had made arrangements to leave
, ”says the lawyer, adding that her client had prepared letters to explain her gesture.
For Me Satta, this trial is not a case of domestic violence: “
In 47 years of living together, there has been no violence.
It's more of an act of desperation.
»
