Burned with a lighter, hit with a slap: prison sentence and compulsory treatment for the violent ex-partner suffering from schizophrenia

L’ex-conjoint était jugé pour deux faits de violence survenus en mai et novembre 2024. Midi Libre – EVA TISSOT

Cet habitant de Saint-André-de-Sangonis, près de Clermont-l’Hérault, était jugé mercredi 8 janvier pour deux épisodes de violence à l’encontre de son ex-compagne, sous les yeux de leur bébé de quelques mois.

Violence committed against his ex-partner, a repeat offence and in front of their baby who was a few months old: so many aggravating circumstances held against this young man who appeared on Wednesday, January 8 before the Montpellier Criminal Court. At the center of the debates, two episodes that occurred in May and November 2024 in the mother's apartment, in Saint-André-de-Sangonis near Clermont-l'Hérault.

The second facts are the most serious. That day, the police were called at 7 p.m. when the young woman was kicked and knocked to the ground. Among the neighbors who intervened, one of them claims to have witnessed the beatings. “We both pushed each other. I was forbidden from approaching her for six months but she had given me permission to come”, the defendant, who has been in pretrial detention for two months, assured the court.

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The baby, in his playpen, witness to the violence

For her part, the victim explained to the emergency services that she had surprised her ex, who had entered her home without her knowledge, while she was doing laundry. The tone had apparently become heated and the situation had degenerated. The police discovered a knife on the floor in the kitchen and another on the sofa in the living room. The couple's little girl, who was six months old at the time, witnessed the scene in her playpen…

The victim's lawyer reported “constant insults and death threats” made by the defendant, who had already been convicted of violence. “Ten days before the events in November, he had appeared before a judge.” “You're going to understand what it's like to suffer,” the young woman received on her phone. But the ex-partner claims that he is not the author of this message, which was allegedly sent by his roommate. The lawyer for the civil party mentions “the fear, the anxiety, the tears” of her client, faced with the fear of facing the defendant again. She is asking for €3,000 for the mother's moral damages, and €2,000 for her daughter's.

Schizophrenic who has failed treatment

But for the defense, “the truth lies between the statements of the victim and those of (her) client”. The lawyer points out inconsistencies in the file. “Madame did not call the police to say that monsieur was not respecting his ban on contact with her. We are in a couple where one day we want to, one day we don't.” The mental illness of the defendant, schizophrenic, is also highlighted. “He has been off treatment since he was 18, when he left the home where he was.”In addition to the illness, there is also a painful life story. Abandoned by his Burundian family, the young man was adopted at the age of six, before being placed in a home from the age of eleven until he came of age. He is now under reinforced guardianship. “He doesn't understand everything”, his lawyer argues, when the court asks the defendant why he refused to undergo a psychiatric assessment during his incarceration.

Following the requests of prosecutor Marie Hamiti, the court presided over by Aurélien Vitrac handed down a sentence of 24 months in prison, twelve of which were suspended with a reinforced probationary period of two years. The ex-spouse will serve the firm part under electronic monitoring. Added to this is the obligation to receive psychiatric care, the ban on contacting the victim and appearing at her home, as well as the payment of €2,000 to the victim, and €800 to her daughter, in moral damages.

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