“When I read the children's statements, I got chills”: convicted of making New Year's Eve a night of terror in Alès

Condamné, le prévenu a immédiatement été reconduit en détention. MIDI LIBRE – CHARLES LEDUC

Invited to his ex-partner's home to celebrate New Year's Eve, a fifty-year-old man, in a drunken state, committed violence. “Quite chilling” facts, considers the presiding judge of the immediate appearance hearing on Monday, January 6.

This New Year's Eve spent in a home in Alès, in the Gard, Me Camille Monestier, lawyer for a civil party, compares it to a scene from the horror film “The Shining”. A woman, who is with her children, has invited the man she has just separated from but with whom she has remained on very good terms. As the evening goes on, everyone dances, but one of the children, aged 9, starts to cry because this 56-year-old, who has been drinking a lot, allegedly hit him in the leg. The mother gets involved and, quickly, the situation degenerates. She is hit. Two little ones take refuge in the bathroom and through the door, the fifty-year-old threatens to kill the kid with whom he has just had a disagreement. To top it all off, when the police arrive, the suspect's arrest turns out to be “complicated”.

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“I drank, I drank. I don't remember”, says the defendant

This Monday, January 6, during the immediate appearance trial of this man after a stint in pretrial detention, the presiding judge, Cécile Baessa, describes, therefore, facts “quite chilling”. The defendant who denied everything during his police custody declares, this time: “I drank, I drank. I don't remember. Or very little. Fragments. I don't see myself consciously hitting children…” “It's weird to remember some things and not others”, retorts the magistrate.

A man to put “out of harm's way”

Cindy Fernandez, the deputy public prosecutor, dwells on “a totally surreal scene” and confides that “when (she a) read the children's statements, (she) had chills”. This defendant with twenty convictions on his criminal record, who “doesn't take responsibility at all” and “is completely in denial”, she wants to put him “out of harm's way” to “protect society”. The prosecution is demanding 18 months in prison, the revocation of a five-month suspended sentence, a ban on contact and continued detention.

“He is not a monster,” the defense argues

For Me Euria Thomasian, this indictment is “totally disproportionate”. The defense attorney “does not think he is trying to evade his responsibilities”; if he does not remember, it is the fault of the alcohol. Certainly, it is a “terrifying scene”, but her client “is not a monster”. She assures that he loved this family towards whom he had never been violent.

A heavy criminal record

The fifty-year-old does not escape continued detention. After deliberation, the court sentences him to ten months of imprisonment, to the revocation of his simple suspended sentence, and issues a ban on contact and appearing at the home of this family for three years. This, given “the seriousness of the facts” and his “criminal record”, motivates the presiding judge.

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