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“
I was maddeningly naive.
“Alongside his only son in tears, Patrick Duart, 71, still denies the sexual nature of the facts of which he is accused at the exit of the hearing this Friday.
The one who was still deputy mayor of Talence last week, is accused of sexual assault by two women, who are civil parties in this case.
At the heart of this trial judged in the Bordeaux court on Friday, the relationship of the elected official * with the staff assigned to him by the Gironde association Domicile Santé.
Dozens of caregivers dispatched to the scene between 2014 and 2021 took turns at his wife's bedside until her death in January of that year.
Go back.
On June 5, 2020, after having worked for six years at the bedside of Madame Duart, Naima **, a liberal nurse filed a complaint against her husband.
She accuses
him "of jumping on her by touching her breasts
" a few days earlier, May 28, 2020. A story corroborated by another nurse in contact with the victim that day.
"
Surprise
", this third person said during his hearing that he had confronted Patrick Duart.
She describes a man “
who did not seem to measure his gesture
”.
At the bar, the defendant effectively refutes the sexual nature of all the allegations made against him.
"
It wasn't that at all.
I was often near my wife's bed.
Naima was quite familiar.
She slapped me on the arm or on the shoulder.
That day, she pushed me with a cushion during the toilet and I pushed her away.
It was a reflex gesture of defense
”, assures the septuagenarian, who affirms to have immediately apologized and “
to have been embarrassed
” by understanding that he had touched him “
involuntarily
” an intimate part.
Naima is very formal, except with Monsieur Duart.
It may happen that she starts conversations with him that I would not have dared.
The hierarchical superior of one of the victims, heard by the investigators.
Questioned by the court after this contradictory version of the facts, Naima confirmed “friendly
” repulsive gestures
intended to make this
“very fusional”
husband understand with the patient that his physical proximity was “
intrusive
”.
The nurse also recognizes that her relationship with the one she accuses had become more than professional over time.
To the point of promising to invite him to his housewarming party or to suggest that he organize a lunch, which took place, to bring together all the people mandated to take care of his wife, his son and his children. children.
The testimony of the nurse's hierarchical superior, added to the file, attests to this.
"
Naima is very formal, except with Monsieur Duart.
It can happen that she starts conversations with him that I would not have dared
, “thus exposed the latter to the investigators.
Another testimony
On Friday, Naima's lawyer, Pauline Soubie-Ninet, citing the "
trauma
" of her client who now "
doubts
" "
her professional identity
", requested the referral of the examination of her damage to the Commission of compensation for victims of offenses (Civi), as well as the reimbursement of its legal costs.
In her argument, she also relied "
on the character of the elected
" of the accused and on the hearing added to the file of the second civil party, Nour *, aged 25, absent at the trial and unrepresented. .
Moroccan, the carer intervened four to six times at Patrick Duart's home in November 2019. While she "
finds him nice
" the first time, she says she is uncomfortable the following times.
The defendant “
offers him an aperitif
”.
He reportedly commented on "
her pretty breasts
" after she showed him a "
sexy
" photo of her in evening dress.
“
Annoying reconciliations
” that she mentions to her management to exercise her right to withdrawal, followed by effects.
“
She speaks French badly
”
Today Patrick Duart is accused of having "
pressed against the kitchen worktop
" the life assistant by "
wiping the tears from his eyes with paper towel
" while she was cutting onions.
To the question of the investigators: was he erect at that time?
She answers: “
Yes
”.
An interrogation mode castigated by the defendant's representative, Maître Julien Plouton.
He denounces leading questions, likely to distort the testimony of the victim.
“
She speaks French badly, cannot read it and we ask her closed questions with technical terms like the word “erection”!
“, scolded the lawyer.
La Cauva's report after Nour's examination mentions signs of hypervigilance and trauma consistent with the alleged sexual assault.
“
She has a traumatic past which could also explain her observations.
She was forcibly married and was the victim of domestic violence before arriving in France
, ”retorts Me Julien Plouton.
The lawyer also argued of a "
contamination of the testimonies
" of the victims, who would have "
heard
" before their hearings.
Nevertheless, underlines the prosecution, the two complainants, who refused the confrontation during the investigation, are not the only ones to abound on the unseemly attitude of Patrick Duart.
In the file, a nurse attests to "
discussions turned to sex from the angle of the joke
".
He would have buttoned the blouse of a physiotherapist "
to check that it was his size
" by suggesting that he put it on bare.
He would have made a reflection to this same woman on her possible practice of sodomy.
Several nurses evoke a facetious invitation to bathe “
naked
” in the swimming pool.
All mention a man who is “
sticky
” and involved during the care without their asking him.
"It's the word of one, against the word of the other"
Inappropriate jokes?
"
A slippage made up of saucy jokes in the face of the leaden screed and this sadness at the end of his wife's life
", concedes the defense.
His intrusive presence with the nurses?
The reflection of "
the distress of a man who on a daily basis provides care to his demented wife and who stands close because he considers himself to be the one who knows best what suits him
", says Maître Plouton, asking for a release.
Stressing the complexity of proving the facts of sexual assault which take place "
in the secrecy of the alcoves
", the prosecution underlined the "
courage
" of the civil party present.
“
Reading this file, I asked myself a lot of questions about the integrity and probity of this deputy mayor*.
It's one man's word against another man's word.
Who is telling the truth?
They did not add the victims.
They could have denounced acts of greater sexual seriousness
, ”assessed the deputy prosecutor Olivier Bonithon.
Before concluding: “
Me, I believe the victims.
He asked for a 4-year suspended prison sentence and a 5-year ineligibility sentence.
The deliberation will be delivered by the Bordeaux court on March 17, 2023.
*Patrick Duart
was dismissed from his post as deputy
by the mayor of Talence, Emmanuel Sallaberry, on Monday 16 January.
In office at the City since 2006, he retained his seat on the municipal council within the majority “without delegation or compensation”.
**The first names of the civil parties have been changed.