It is a young girl whose father, Philippe Gillet, sleeps in prison, sentenced at first instance to 22 years in prison for the murder of Anaïs Guillaume, his mistress.
She was also a child who lost her mother in troubled circumstances, run over by a cow in January 2012. A version that justice has never believed, accusing Philippe Gillet of the death of his wife.
She is now "an essential witness".
Placed in police custody in the heart of August by investigators from the research section (SR) of Reims, “Philippe Gillet's daughter admitted to having written and posted, on her father's instructions, the anonymous letter allowing the discovery of Anaïs Guillaume's body in October 2019 ”, assures a legal source.
She should not be prosecuted for these facts, but will be called upon to testify at her father's appeal trial in the coming months.
In October 2019, a few months after the conviction of the one who was nicknamed "the Bull of the Ardennes" to 22 years in prison, an anonymous letter was received by the prosecutor's office in Charleville-Mézières as well as Philippe Gillet's lawyer.
The missive assures us that Anaïs Guillaume, a 21-year-old blonde who disappeared on April 16, 2013 after a meeting with her lover, was actually kidnapped and kept alive in Belgium until 2016. The author of the letter explains that the body was buried on the property of the farmer, in a place already searched without success by the gendarmes, while he was in prison.
According to the raven, therefore, an innocent person sleeps in prison.
For several days nothing happens.
Incompatible dates
Tired of waiting, the eldest daughter of Philippe Gillet decides to rent a backhoe loader, and discovers some bones.
She warns the investigators, who finish exhuming the body of Anais Guillaume, under a pile of manure, "where the earth had in reality never been returned before the imprisonment of Philippe Gillet", assures a relative of the investigation.
Since then, an expertise has already challenged the hypothesis evoked by the crow.
Thus, without being 100% affirmative, the forensic pathologists considered that the date of Anaïs Guillaume's death was compatible with the period of his disappearance.
Investigators discovered Anaïs Guillaume's body in Philippe Gillet's house in June 2016./PhotoPQR/L'Union de Reims / Aurélien Laudy
Quickly, investigators doubt the hypothesis of a raven totally foreign to the case.
They quickly manage to demonstrate that the letter was posted from Belgium, the country where Valérie works
(Editor's note: the first name has been changed)
Gillet "who has always stood up for his father, and seems to be in his grip", believes a relative of the investigation.
At the same time, prison guards surprise Philippe Gillet on several occasions with cell phones, explains Laurent de Caigny, the public prosecutor of Charleville-Mézières.
Eyes quickly turn to his daughter, who visits him regularly in prison.
The Charleville-Mézières prosecutor's office opens an investigation into these facts.
When questioned, her daughter lets go of her father
During the month of August, the young woman is placed in police custody by the gendarmes of the SR of Reims.
She quickly admits having "brought phones into prison and having had regular exchanges with her father," underlines Laurent de Caigny.
For these facts, she will have to do a citizenship course in the coming weeks.
But the investigators want to know more and question her about the famous anonymous letter.
After only a few minutes, she "broke down and let go of her father," confides a source familiar with the matter.
It's terrible, this kid has not had an easy life ... "Her testimony in any case greatly weakens the defense of her father, who has always claimed his innocence.
Thus, during the first trial, Philippe Gillet was sentenced to 22 years' imprisonment when the courts did not have the body of Anaïs Guillaume, leaving the door open to many uncertainties.
“The situation has changed, supports a legal source.
Anaïs Guillaume seems to have been killed at the time of her disappearance, she was found on the land of Philippe Gillet and he knew perfectly well where the body was hidden when he asked his daughter to undertake excavations… That makes a lot of elements .
"
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Contacted, Me Richard Delgenes, Valérie Gillet's lawyer, and Me Ghislain Fay, Philippe Gillet's lawyer, did not wish to speak.
