On the third day of his trial for the murder of his ex-partner, who was burned alive, Jonathan Boillet ended up abandoning the accident theory, to the mixed relief of the victim's family, who continue to demand "the truth".
Jonathan Boillet, 36, has been on trial since Tuesday at the Pas-de-Calais Assizes for the murder in November 2020 of his partner Sandy Cucheval, burned alive at the age of 33 in the car where the couple was.
Admitted to the burns unit of Lille hospital, she died there a week later.
“For years I made assumptions.
But according to the experts, there is no photo, it’s really me,” he replied in a neutral tone to the president who had just asked him if he wanted to change his version.
This invites him to clarify his thoughts.
“I really have a blackout,” he maintains, claiming to have woken up at the time of the explosion.
But “it was really me who doused her with gasoline, you can’t say otherwise.”
A family fighting for “the truth”
Sighs of relief then invade the courtroom, largely filled with members of Sandy Cucheval's family, several relatives wipe away tears.
Before recognizing these facts without explaining them, Jonathan Boillet saw three of the children take the stand, the mother, the ex-mother-in-law and the ex-partner of Sandy Cucheval, who demanded “confessions” from him. “the truth”, “answers to be able to grieve”.
Then an expert psychologist estimates at the bar that "his fight against depressive collapse currently allows him little more than denial of the facts", while estimating that the trial "may have a triggering effect".
If he committed the acts, confessing “would be an opportunity to finally confront everything he refused to confront in his life,” he emphasizes.
First tears in audience
The “lives ruined” by this tragedy, Jonathan Boillet “thinks about it every day”, he assures.
After an hour of interrogation, he then wipes away a few tears, his first and only tears of the afternoon.
Raped as a child by an uncle eight years his senior, Jonathan Boillet fell into addiction to alcohol and various drugs at the age of 11.
Already convicted on multiple occasions, including four times for domestic violence, he was released on June 29, 2020 and was subject to socio-judicial monitoring at the time of the events.
Since then, Jonathan Boillet has pleaded the accident, claiming to have lit a cigarette which set a poorly closed gasoline can on fire.
A thesis contradicted by experts, according to whom Sandy Cucheval's clothes were soaked in gasoline.
The victim herself assured a police officer, while she was lying seriously burned on the floor of a garage, that Jonathan Boillet had wanted to kill her by dousing her with gasoline.
“That’s what must have happened,” concedes the accused.
“You don’t care about the victim’s family!
»
Heavily alcoholic on the evening of the events, Jonathan Boillet repeats having vague memories of the whole day, more and more fragmented until the events.
“I can’t, but I would like to know what happened,” he assures, insisting “I don’t know.”
“Try to make an effort,” a lawyer for the civil party told him;
“you don’t care about the victim’s family!”
», exclaims another.
Also read “Finally free”: victim of domestic violence for more than 35 years, Michèle ended up breaking the silence
“It’s a game for him.”
Just after the hearing, the victim's sisters fume in court.
None believe in memory loss.
“He knows very well what he did.
I want him to tell me
Yes, I doused her in gasoline.
Yes, I set him on fire
,” Sandy Cucheval’s mother told AFP.
Their last hope, on the eve of the verdict: “let the night bring counsel”.
On average, a feminicide occurs every three days in France.
The Ministry of Justice counted 94 feminicides in 2023.