“I have the feeling that it’s me who is being judged.” On the second day of his trial, Didier Stephan is still struggling to understand his presence in the accused box. The charges against him, however, are heavy: theft in a meeting, failure to report a crime and failure to assist a person in danger. On February 18, 2022, this 39-year-old from Brest, a drug user for several years, was at the home of Yoann L'Abbé, in the Bellevue district, in Brest. It was one of his acquaintances, Mickaël Sousseing, who invited him there, in order to consume cocaine. But, in the evening, the situation degenerates, and Mickaël Sousseing and his host come to blows. Under the violence of the blows, Yoann L'Abbé lost his life. An extremely violent scene witnessed by Didier Stephan without calling for help.
A rare genetic anomaly
“I tried to intervene. I didn't do it anymore because I was afraid that Mickaël would attack my family. I was paralyzed,” he justified himself in court. Regarding the facts of non-denunciation, he explains that he feared that his heavy criminal record – 19 mentions at the time of the facts – would harm him. To the expert psychiatrist, whom he met shortly after his arrest, Didier Stephan expressed his suffering. That of a man who has always been different from others: the only mixed race in his family, the tallest in his class, the only one not to bear his father's last name… He believes that his lack of reaction this evening -this would be due to a genetic disease, which he only learned about shortly before. Little documented, this syndrome, which affects the sex chromosomes, affects one in 600 men. “Behavioral disorders are common in this type of syndrome,” explains Yasmina Dejean-Mazouni, doctor-psychiatrist. This difference could, in part, explain Mr. Stephan's career, which was marked by numerous difficulties, first at school then in life in general. On the other hand, although people with this syndrome are over-represented in prisons and hospitals, the vast majority of them do not become notorious psychopaths. »
The expert also notes that Didier Stephan does not present psychological disorders or mental deficiency. If the latter confides a certain anxiety to the psychiatrist, he does not present guilt at the time of the interview, a fact also noted in his co-accused. He does not appear to have been traumatized by the scene he witnessed. An assertion refuted by Me Garrec, one of Didier Stephan's lawyers: “How did you feel after the facts? », she questions him. “I have never been so bad,” confides the Brestois. I wanted to die. I even told myself that Yoann was almost lucky to be dead. Because personally, I would have preferred to be dead than to be here having to explain all this to you. »
