"Do you think Willy Bardon has a disturbing personality?"
It's been a good half an hour, this Tuesday, that the two experts, a psychiatrist and a psychologist, unroll for the Assize Court of the North their prudent analysis, when the president asks them this key question.
Since the opening of his appeal trial on Monday in Douai, the accused has certainly been described as a "loudmouth" willingly vulgar, a boor a bit scheming, not left behind on alcohol and women.
But in the opinion of his relatives, and his past, it is still very difficult to see the portrait of a sexual predator, capable of a crime as atrocious as that suffered by Élodie Kulik, 22 years old. , strangled, raped and burned along a road on the Somme in the winter of 2002.
To read also Murder of Elodie Kulik: "the double life" of Willy Bardon mentioned on the first day of the appeal trial
In their two-part presentation, the experts themselves often seem to counterbalance or even contradict their written report.
The narcissism of the accused, often presented as a "personality disorder"?
"It's a narcissism after all fairly typical", tempers one.
The "prepsychotic profile" noted in the report?
"Not in the psychiatric sense", he further qualifies.
The tendency towards victimization?
"It's because he says he does not understand why he is accused", deciphers the other.
"He has limits"
If he possesses “antisocial traits” - impulsiveness and reduced tolerance for frustration - Willy Bardon “has limits”, and “does not function perversely”. He can be manipulative, “but not in the finesse”. They also note an unfiltered discourse on sexuality, a lack of empathy which can lead him to "function without the desire of the other", in particular by having recourse to the service of prostitutes without seeing the slightest problem.
It is a delicate mission to probe the psychology of an accused person, and to issue a decided opinion on someone who risks his head: “it is a purely hypothetical point of view” thus evades the psychologist several times.
His psychiatrist colleague, with whom he wrote that the personality of Bardon, in connection with a strong alcoholism would not be "clinically incompatible" with a passage to the act, moderates the matter today.
"This consumption, he seems able to self-control".
And concludes: "he is not a disturbing personality in the criminological sense of the term".
Jacky Kulik, Elodie's father, provided with the same photo of his daughter as during the first trial.
AFP / Denis Charlet
The defense drinks whey.
Especially since, earlier in the day, the accused and his lawyers had rather managed to dodge the blows coming from the prosecution, which highlighted some inglorious feats of arms.
First, his extramarital relationship, lasting seven years, with his nephew's partner.
"He has always been kind, he supported me", came to testify the one who now shares - officially - his life.
It describes a sincere and reciprocal attachment;
a man in whom she found "stability, listening, respect", contrasting with her former companion, a violent man.
"He's flirting, but he's not misogynist"
Of course, “he's flirting,” she agrees. But he is not misogynist ”. Two of his cousins, a childhood friend… they too never noticed inappropriate behavior in his youth. But it is the period of the facts - 2002 - which interests the prosecution, and these "theme bars" that Willy Bardon, with his usual good nature, admits having frequented with clients while he was setting up his plumbing business. With one of these “girls of joy”, as he calls them, “we had fun” with a colleague, he admits, just as he would have liked to have a three-way relationship, with his partner and his mistress. .
There's still that other adultery, consumed in the back of his 4 x 4, on an inflatable mattress, a story of fake bills when he moonlighted in a garage or, more annoyingly, that gunshot fired in the garage. air to scare a neighbor who had damaged his cars.
With his partner, he justifies, “we had no more money at that time, it makes people angry.
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"Just because you treat your wife fat doesn't mean you're suspicious!"
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The same companion he was able to deal with on the phone as a “social case” and “bougnoule” by urging him to “suck it more often”… “We spoke like that, we've known each other since we were fourteen years… ”he opposes, almost surprised. "Wait sir, we present you as the best of men, the nicest, the most helpful." Is that how you talk to your wife? Are these the sweet words we send? »Chokes one of the general counsel.
Anxious to avoid the trial of bad reputation, Me Gabriel Duménil, one of his lawyers, takes control.
“It seems to me that you are a normal man.
Sometimes you get carried away, you say gritty things, and sometimes you are nice… ”“ Well yes… Among my relatives, I don't know many who are perfect.
And then it's not because you treat your wife fat that you are suspect!
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PODCAST.
Murder of Elodie Kulik: a recording, a verdict, and still gray areas
He has been since 2013, since his friend Grégory Wiart was identified by his DNA - long after his death - and his voice was recognized by relatives on the call to the firefighters of Elodie, just before his death. He himself has always claimed his innocence. "I have never participated in this horrible crime," he repeated, suddenly more serious. "And what does it feel like to be implicated for so many years?" »Launches his lawyer. “It's unlivable. At night, you dream, by day, it works for you. Every day, every minute. When we were sentenced to thirty years in prison at first instance, we say to ourselves:
are they going to see the truth? "
"And how do you get over that?" In his voice, emotion leveled up to the point of sobbing. “I have people who support me today, my partner, my friends. They always tell me:
Willy, you have to get up.
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