“I will kill you and I will kill myself afterwards”: particularly distressing words for this resident of Saint-Fiacre, who heard them on Wednesday February 14, Valentine’s Day.
Especially since they were run by her alcoholic husband.
She had gotten used to denigrating comments about her weight, but death threats were new.
And her anxiety escalated when, two days later, she heard her husband – in possession of three undeclared weapons – going to the basement to saw “something”.
It was with determination that this sixty-year-old took the stand of the Meaux criminal court this Wednesday to recount the week of anguish she experienced from that day on.
A few steps from her, the man she wants to divorce – free at the hearing – shook his head in denial.
“On Friday, he told me:
since you are looking for me, you will find me.
I was in my room.
I heard the sound of ice cubes in a glass, he was pouring whiskey.
He went down to his workshop, he was going back and forth.
I heard sawing and then I heard a loud noise,” the victim said.
Her husband had just tried to saw off the barrel of a gun before shooting.
“I prayed,” she said to the judges.
In the following days, the defendant continued to drink alcohol.
And the legal news served as a detonator: on Tuesday February 20, a man shot his ex-wife in front of the Montpellier judicial court.
“I told myself:
if you don’t do something, you will be next
.”
Reason why, on Friday February 23, she took advantage of her partner's absence to return the two rifles and the handgun belonging to him to the Meaux police station.
A search of their home followed immediately.
“Madame’s story is chilling”
The defendant, a 63-year-old retiree, never convicted in the past, spent the hearing stammering.
Red with confusion, he struggled to answer the questions and continued to minimize the facts: “It was following an argument... we wanted a divorce... that's how it happened.
I told him:
what do you want, that I kill you and then kill myself
?
The words that I said and that I regret, I didn’t mean them.”
According to him, the threats had “nothing to do” with his attempt to saw off a rifle and the shooting.
Surprise from President Isabelle Verissimo: “Don’t you see an unfortunate coincidence?
» Response from the person concerned “They are two different things.
I wanted to see what it was like.”
The deputy prosecutor Alexandre Boulin requested eight months in prison with suspended probation, the obligation to follow an accountability course for the prevention and fight against violence within the couple and sexist, as well as the ban on possessing a weapon for fifteen years.
“This case is a cliché of the daily violence experienced by women.
It starts with small remarks about physical appearance, which are the beginning of violence.
The influence takes hold and the insults increase.
Madame’s story is chilling,” said the prosecutor.
The court handed down a five-month prison sentence, suspended on probation, for death threats and unauthorized possession of a weapon.
The retiree - who will have to follow a responsibility training course - is prohibited from appearing at home, from coming into contact with the victim and from possessing a weapon for five years.