More than thirty years after the events, a suspect is caught up with justice: a septuagenarian was indicted at the unsolved crimes center of Nanterre for a murder accompanied by a rape in Paris in 1991 and an attempted rape in the Seine -et-Marne in 1999.
According to a source close to the case, confirming information from Vaucluse Matin, it is a man who is already in pre-trial detention, suspected of having drugged his wife for a decade, in the Vaucluse, so that she raped, unconscious, by more than forty men between 2010 and 2020. This retiree had been arrested in September 2020 in a store in Carpentras filming under the skirts of customers.
Opening of a separate judicial investigation
The man "
about 70 years old
" is "
currently detained as part of a separate judicial investigation opened in Avignon
", indicated Friday January 13 the parquet floor of Nanterre, requested by AFP.
The suspect was "
extracted, placed in police custody and heard on the investigating magistrate's commission on October 12 and 13, 2022
", according to the same source.
The following day, he was "
indicted for a murder, preceded, accompanied or followed by another crime, committed on December 4, 1991 in Paris and for an attempted rape with a weapon committed on May 11, 1999 in Villeparisis
" (Seine -et-Marne) before being remanded in custody.
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The proceedings against this man are the first initiated by the “
cold cases
” unit, dedicated to serial or unsolved crimes, since its creation in March 2022 at the Nanterre court, in Hauts-de-Seine.
A pole investigating judge was seized of these two crimes in September.
“
Given in particular the modus operandi of the assaults and the context of the facts, both committed in the context of an apartment visit, the two victims being both real estate agents
”, these two cases had been brought together after having initially made the object of a dismissal, respectively in 2005 and 2001.
The suspect denies the rape and murder of 1991 but admits the attempted rape of 1999. Regarding the first case, the charges are "
based solely on reconciliations
", denounced to AFP the suspect's lawyer, Béatrice Zavarro , from the Marseille Bar.
“
My client's position is an absolute and lasting denial.
He fell from the clouds.
We will fight as we can
,” she added.
Regarding the attempted rape, the indicted was confused by his DNA, found at the scene.
“
The discussion will focus on the circumstances, we are talking about rape with a weapon, my client says there was no weapon
,” noted his lawyer.
Pictures found
In Avignon, the investigation into the rapes suffered by his wife is still in progress.
After his arrest, investigators discovered on the suspect's computer, seized from his home in Mazan (Vaucluse), videos showing his unconscious wife raped by men.
On the internet, they had also found messages he had posted on libertine dating forums where he offered people to come and take advantage of his wife, whom he drugged with powerful anxiolytics.
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At the
"cold cases" center
in Nanterre, cases of particular complexity are dealt with (the crimes must be serial and/or their perpetrators not yet identified eighteen months after the events) as well as those presenting international issues or requiring a high level of technicality and expertise.
In mid-December, 59 investigations led by three investigating judges had been opened there, including high-profile cases such as the investigations targeting Michel Fourniret and Monique Olivier or the disappearance of Marion Wagon.