A former gendarme, detained for a year, was refused his request for release on Tuesday by the Paris detention judge.
This 55-year-old man is suspected of having abused and beaten his wife for many years in the very chic Ecole des mines, boulevard Saint-Michel in Paris.
The case began about a year ago when the wife pushed open the door of the police station to denounce acts of violence.
Her husband, who had just learned of his wife's infidelity, allegedly hit her.
She explains that her husband has been abusing her since 2014. She adds that he also forces her to have sex.
The fifty-year-old, who is in early retirement, is arrested before being placed in police custody in the premises of the third district of the judicial police.
He admits that he laid hands on his wife, furious to learn that she had been unfaithful.
But this man with a clean criminal record firmly denies the facts of rape.
A letter of death threat to children
Today, he would like to get out of prison to settle in the Marne. The fifty-year-old, who worked in the Republican Guard, explains that he no longer wants to live in Paris. He started a procedure to see his children. “I don't want to hear from my wife anymore, but I want to be able to relate to my children,” he confirms. The prosecutor opposes his release because he fears that this man will take advantage of this open door to put pressure on his ex-wife and his children. "He sent a disturbing letter to the victim," recalls the magistrate, estimating that the risk that this man is again violent is real.
The counsel of this man, Me Romain Ruiz, considers that the acts of rape which are accused of his client are fanciful. And he recalls that he produced exchanges on WhatsApp where the victim sends her husband "photos of her naked in a context of overflowing sexuality". He recalls that the neighborhood survey at the mining school did not make it possible to see more clearly. The inhabitants of the place did not hear anything suspicious and describe "the victim as a sad woman and her husband as an unfriendly man". Finally, the lawyer notes that his client's family supports him.
