"Rémi Chesne is not a cold-blooded man behind his apparent bonhomie…".
Since the start of his trial on Monday morning, it is no longer really a mystery.
Judged by the Assize Court of Hérault for murder, committed in the company of Audrey Louvet, a young woman a little lost that he would have manipulated, the former hairdresser at home was carried away immediately, revealing a angry and paranoid character.
Dr Claude Aiguevives, who assessed it, came this Tuesday to drive the point home a little more.
In a well-supported and bushy deposition, he painted the portrait of a seemingly "normal" man, actually consumed from within by incessant cogitation and a sickly need for control.
A crucial light to understand the motive of this 51-year-old man, accused of having set up an ambush to kill, five years later, a man who had a one-night affair with his wife.
Patrick Isoird, a hospital worker without history then aged 49, had vanished before being found killed by two bullets at the bottom of a cave in Sète, his body partially charred, in the summer of 2014.
"He sees himself at the center of a plot"
But without the many clues left by Louvet and Chesne in their wake, who could have suspected this beloved father of having instigated such a crime?
The strange suicide of his wife Nadège in 2009, the very day after this adultery, had not aroused suspicion.
But the case, since reopened in parallel, weighs heavily on the debates since Monday, to the chagrin of Rémi Chesne who does not support these suspicions and has always denied his involvement in these two deaths ...
"He sees himself at the center of a plot", underlines in this capacity Dr. Aiguevives, to whom he appeared obsessed with his affair and his media treatment, on the lookout for the slightest press article, the slightest rumor ... " Every time I meet him, he tells me about it.
He redoes the investigation, putting himself in the place of the examining magistrate, ”the psychiatrist is surprised, retracing their multiple interviews in detention.
Convinced that a prosecution case had been shown against him, Rémi Chesne went so far as to imagine that he could have been the real target of the ambush.
Or that Audrey Louvet, who overwhelmed him in his confession, could have been jealous of his new fiancée and of her heritage - consistent and of mysterious origin.
"He saw his situation as a persecution," continues the psychiatrist.
He even noted that the reconstruction (
Editor's note: of the assassination
) had been organized on the day of Saint Audrey.
He is convinced that this is no accident!
"
"Often you have to hear the reverse of what he says"
"Susceptible", "pride and narcissism are very internalized" in him, according to Dr. Aiguevives, who does not believe for a second Rémi Chesne when he explains that he has perfectly digested the adultery of his wife - that he also presented as a rape to the hearing and to several relatives - and had no resentment towards Patrick Isoird.
"Often you have to hear the reverse of what he says", says the doctor, speaking of "denial".
For the expert, "the deception and the possibility of rupture have aroused a form of humiliation" in Rémi Chesne, who would have come to echo his academic difficulties - he tripled his CE1 because of a dyslexic disorder.
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The criminal act?
A “vengeful jealousy” intended to “dry up an insoluble hatred” and “repair a narcissistic wound”.
"It is not a sadistic act, he further specifies, it is an act of psychic suffering".
“Why five years between the motive, the deception, and the act?
», Asks the doctor aloud, aware that this delay may be of concern.
Rémi Chesne, maniac of order and cleanliness, "likes to protocol, organize, control", he says.
An "obsessive", therefore, who would have been overwhelmed by a devouring and self-centered rumination at the origin of a "crime of self-esteem", according to Dr. Aiguevives.
“We often think of the crime of passion.
But this is often immediate, committed impulsively.
It is an uncontrolled scene.
The crime of self-esteem is a thoughtful, programmed act, because the subject remains centered on his prejudice.
The crime of passion is in a way:
I cannot live without you
, while the crime of self-esteem is rather:
he has deserved it,
”he concludes.
"Have you not exceeded the limits of psychiatric expertise?"
A nightmarish presentation for the defense, which jumps with both feet on the doctor having, it is true, taken some liberties with the presumption of innocence.
“Have you not gone beyond the limits of psychiatric expertise?
We are not here to construct criminal hypotheses!
»Annoys Me Luc Abratkiewicz.
"Basically he's guilty, in denial and he won't say anything… What is this methodology?" ! "Thunders the penalist, who continues:" Is he a normal man? "Yes", concedes the expert. "Is he a psychopath?" "No", he said again. A short respite before the capital hearing, this Wednesday morning, of Audrey Louvet.
