Aston Valin, a 27-year-old man, was sentenced on Wednesday January 31 by the Charente-Maritime Assize Court to life imprisonment, in accordance with the requisitions of the attorney general.
He was found guilty of the rape of Jacqueline*, 84 years old, and Marie*, a student aged 22 at the time of the facts.
The two attacks took place in La Rochelle, on September 12, 2021, in the early morning.
Father of a one-month-old child, the accused originally from Reunion Island then lived with his partner in Saint-Xandre, a small town north of La Rochelle.
Two rapes in a few minutes
That morning, Marie was leaving a nightclub in La Rochelle where she had spent the night with friends.
After an argument with her boyfriend, she went home on her own with a friend.
While the latter had gone to urinate, Marie was approached by a stranger and taken to an isolated path in a park.
According to her testimony, her attacker put his hand around her throat and threatened her in these terms:
"If you open it, I'll kill you
. "
Marie was then beaten and raped several times in a bush.
Her assailant had also trampled on her.
Jacqueline* was going out to walk her dog.
As she returned to her apartment, an individual appeared behind her and followed her into her hall.
The octogenarian had been pushed, pushed to the ground and raped.
The scene lasted three minutes.
Aston Valin's DNA was found on the clothes of both victims.
Victims marked for life
Since the events, the two victims have developed sleeping and eating disorders and hypervigilance.
After her attack, Jacqueline suffered a heart attack requiring hospitalization in intensive care.
A
“fear of death”
remains present in her.
Marie stopped her training as a cook and left her boyfriend.
“She lost the life she had within her
,” describes her family.
Another edifying testimony came during the trial: that of Aston's ex-partner Valin, with whom he had his son.
On the stand, she denounced moral, physical and sexual violence.
“He threw objects at me, slapped me, insulted me.
He imposed violent relationships on me.
I was bleeding, I was crying.
But he continued.
I knew he had a criminal record but no rape (...) He looked at the girls while I was not allowed to just say hello to the men.
“Rapes represent it well
,” she explained in particular, as reported by
Sud Ouest
.
In January 2016, the accused was sentenced by the Réunion juvenile court to six years in prison in a case of rape of children and sexual assault of a woman.
During the debates, the accused admitted the rape of Jacqueline but maintained his version of a
“consensual”
sexual relationship , at least initially, with Marie.
“The sentence doesn’t surprise me.
The first idea of a criminal sanction is to protect society.
The only way in the case of Mr. Aston Valin is to put him aside for as long as possible
,” tells Le
Figaro
Me Ludovic Fiers, Jacqueline's lawyer.
The convicted person has ten days to appeal.
*The first name has been changed.