The Court of Cassation rendered its decision this Wednesday, January 31 concerning an appeal filed by Lucas Larivée, main suspect in the murder of Justine Vayrac.
Part of the legal proceedings targeting this 21-year-old farmer, indicted since October 2022 for murder, rape and kidnapping, was canceled for legal reasons.
Me Michel Labrousse, the suspect's lawyer, had pointed out irregularities in the procedure targeting his client, in particular concerning the conditions of his custody.
Certain statements from Lucas Larivée, in particular confessions, had in fact been collected without the presence of his lawyer and had not been filmed.
The lawyer had filed a request for annulment before the investigating chamber of the Limoges Court of Appeal.
This request was rejected on July 6, 2023. The lawyer then appealed to the Court of Cassation.
This judgment partly weakens the accusation
Me Michel Labrousse, lawyer for the suspect
“This is a partial reversal. Decisive elements, such as hearings, were canceled because procedural rules were not respected. This judgment partly weakens the accusation
,” explains
Michel Labrousse to Le
Figaro .
Added to this partial annulment is
“the cancellation of subsequent documents”
.
Elements of the file are in fact based on documents... which are now canceled.
“It’s a bit like a house of cards that collapses
,” summarizes Me Labrousse.
However, the entire procedure targeting the suspect is not canceled.
Lucas Larivée subsequently reiterated his confession.
Disappeared after leaving a nightclub
Justine Vayrac, a 20-year-old nursing student and mother of a two-and-a-half-year-old little boy, disappeared on the night of Saturday October 22 to Sunday October 23, 2022, after spending the evening in the “La Charrette”
nightclub
, in Brive-la-Gaillarde.
She was last seen around 4 a.m. in the company of Lucas Larivée, 21, very close to the nightclub from which she had left to get some fresh air because she was feeling ill.
The two young people had already met a few times in this festive place and followed each other on the social network Instagram.
Lucas Larivée was arrested two days after the disappearance, on October 25, 2022. At the end of police custody, the farmer admitted to having killed Justine Vayrac at her home when, according to him, they had just had a report. consensual sex.
Then he admitted to having taken the corpse into the forest before burying it using agricultural machinery.
The 20-year-old young woman suffered a
“multiple blows to the face, including at least one with a sharp weapon
,” said the Limoges public prosecutor, Baptiste Porcher, at the time of the incident.