A 70-year-old retiree was sentenced on Friday to twenty-five years in prison by the Yvelines Assize Court for the murder of his partner, whose body was found dismembered and charred in a wood in 2017.
"
The sentence is proportionate to the extreme gravity of the facts and to the personality of Philippe Marchand (...) presenting a weak questioning
", estimated the court in its motivations.
The Advocate General had depicted in her indictment a “
methodical, very procedural, cynical, determined, opportunistic
” man who allegedly killed his companion “
because she was hindering his freedom
”.
“Delusional phase”
On August 31, 2017, pieces of burned bodies were discovered on a pedestrian path in Vernouillet, about forty kilometers west of Paris.
It will take nearly two years for investigators to identify them, in May 2019: the victim is a 67-year-old woman, reported missing by her companion on October 16, 2017. On Wednesday, Philippe Marchand said that on the day of the crime, his spouse, with whom he had been in a relationship since the end of 2015, had "
gone into a delirious phase
" and would have tried to strangle him during a "
scuffle
".
He says he then “
grabbed his throat
” in return.
After a "
moment of amazement
", the accused explained that he had used a knife and a saw to dismember the victim's body.
During her argument, the defense lawyer, Me Sylvie Sezikeye-Cayet, called on the court to judge her client "
in view of the facts and not in view of the 31 feminicides
that have been committed since the beginning of the year
". 2023, according to a count by the Féminicides collective by companions or ex.
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According to her, the accused did not “
intend
” to kill the victim and was not “
aware
” of it at the time.
During the trial, the former taxi driver described his companion as "
nice
" and "
elegant
" but also "
very jealous
" and suffering from "
hysteriform disorders
".
The sexagenarian suffered from "
depressive recurrences
", according to an expert.
A friend of the accused, who had been seeing him "
for 60 years
", had described to the bar a man who had loved since his retirement "
to change women, to have extramarital relations
".
After reporting the disappearance of his companion, the accused had called the police several times to inquire about the follow-up to the investigation.
The retiree would have used his bank accounts for more than a year, from which more than 28,000 euros were debited.
The verdict is expected in the afternoon.