This is a key point and a constant which will be at the heart of the debates this Tuesday morning, with the questioning of Willy Bardon: tried on appeal since June 14 in Douai, the accused has always contested his participation in the acts of rape and murder on Élodie Kulik, killed in atrocious conditions along a road on the Somme, on the night of June 10 to 11, 2002. He was sentenced in Amiens on December 6, 2019 to thirty years in prison and had attempted suicide in full court.
However, did he recognize his own voice on the recording of the firefighter's call made by the victim just before his death, which would amount to a semi-confession?
Behind Elodie's sobs stand out two men's voices, one of which would be that of Grégory Wiart, identified post-mortem by his DNA, in 2012. The second is attributed to Willy Bardon by several witnesses.
Thursday 24 and Friday 25 June, they marched to the bar and reiterated their certainties, despite warnings from experts on the reliability of voice recognition and the mediocre quality of this tape.
"It sounds like my voice, but it's not me"
For Major David Michel, who held Willy Bardon in custody in January 2013, the answer to this crucial question, however, is yes.
“Formally,” he says.
For the investigator, after listening to the call variously, the accused denied, then recognized his voice, before reconsidering his statements.
"It sounds like my voice, but it's not me," Willy Bardon repeats over and over.
"But at one point, he asks himself questions, he wonders even if he was not drunk to the point of not remembering", details the gendarme, who confides to the general counsel: "Honestly, when he started talking like that, we thought he was going to make a confession.
But he never really did.
"
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A dangerous shortcut for the defense, which is working to re-read its statements precisely. Confronted with five in custody, including his "brother" Romuald J., who all claim to have identified him on the tape, the latter indeed seems shaken. "It sounds like my voice, it sounds like it," said Willy Bardon repeatedly, while denying having been there. “I don't understand, I have no memories. I remember a lot of things from eleven years ago but not that (…) I look in my memory for what could have happened. Was I so drunk that I couldn't remember anything? "
The eavesdropping is linked, the questions of the gendarmes, too, and Willy Bardon openly doubts: "I don't believe it, it really looks like it's me (...) We hear my voice, but I have no memories (…) I don't even know who I could have been with (…) It is possible that I was there to hear my voice, but I have no memories.
»Willy Bardon will say again how it« makes him strange »to hear this voice« identical »to his own.
"Nobody has the same transcription"
"Can we imagine that after 30 hours of police custody and five people who say they recognize him, he has these words?
Do you know how many times he says
I wasn't there
?
We can count them!
"Tanne Me Gabriel Duménil, rereading the insistent questions of the gendarme, who for his part continues to hear certain words," perfectly audible ".
"And are you sure?
" " Yes ".
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“No one has the same transcript. Neither the experts, nor the witnesses, not even the first director of investigation, who said that at three in the same room they heard three different things. Do you think that under these conditions we can recognize a voice? »Annoys the lawyer. “There are relatives who recognized him. "" Is this proof of his presence on the scene? "" There are relatives who recognized him. "
Me Stéphane Daquo, historical lawyer of the accused, present in custody, takes control. “Your last question in the hearing is:
To say that your voice is the same but not to recognize it is contradictory, isn't it?
So he hadn't recognized? The major stammers a little, but maintains. "But why this question if he did not recognize?" », Insists Me Daquo. The gendarme does not let go: “For me it is not contradictory. "