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This is a second referral.
Waiting for a third?
The future will tell.
The trial of Paul J., a 66-year-old Briton accused of sexual assault on a flight attendant, has been postponed until October 9, 2023. He was due to appear this Thursday before the Nantes criminal court at 2 p.m.
None of the nine files that were scheduled during this session could be judged.
"
It's a decision that was taken because the judges who must ensure the hearings are not numerous enough
", indicated in the preamble the president, before designating a dismissal date for each case, sometimes going up to more a year later.
Read alsoA plane lands in emergency after the sexual assault of a hostess on board
Paul J. caused an emergency landing on a flight from Leeds (England) to Alicante (Spain) on November 12.
According to
Ouest France
, the man, in a state of obvious intoxication, had passed his hand under the skirt of an air hostess before touching her private parts.
Initially scheduled for December 13, the hearing had been postponed due to a missing psychiatric expert document.
Like the previous time, the maintenance under judicial control of the sexagenarian was recorded.
Maître Hennebois, the defense lawyer, indicated that his client was not sure of being present in eight months for financial reasons.
Warned in advance, the defendant was able to cancel his visit but had to pay cancellation fees “
of around 120 euros per day
”, which would represent almost half of his monthly salary.
SEE ALSO
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A “heavily degraded service”
“
We are only 6. We should be 8 to manage to absorb the 14 weekly hearings which must be held
”, detailed the president of the court, this Thursday afternoon.
Among them, “
two substitute judges are already coming as reinforcements in this heavily degraded service ”, continued the magistrate, underlining the “
uncomfortable
” aspect
of this decision, both for litigants and for professionals.
According to information from
Ouest France
, this problem should last until the end of March, with two hearings per week returned.
According to the president of the Nantes judicial court, Franck Bielitzki,
"two magistrates are no longer able to preside over hearings"
(one for health reasons, the other has been appointed to a ministerial cabinet).
Their two substitutes cannot sit on the court either for medical reasons, while their colleagues are overloaded.
On January 5, 2023, the Minister of Justice, Éric Dupond-Moretti, announced the forthcoming recruitment of 10,000 justice officials, including 1,500 magistrates.
During the last city council, the mayor of Nantes, Johanna Rolland, had also proposed to parliamentarians and elected municipal officials Laurence Garnier, Ronan Dantec and Mounir Belhamiti to sign a joint letter addressed to Éric Dupond-Moretti to ask him for means additional justice matters in Nantes.
