The gendarme who led the preliminary investigation into the death in 2017 of a woman in Oise, who had ruled out feminicide, was indicted for forgery, AFP learned Thursday from the prosecutor's office and from the sister of the victim.
False reports
After various twists and turns, the companion of Bénédicte Belair, who died in April 2017, was indicted in January 2023 for aggravated violence against her, between January 2015 and April 2017, and placed under the status of assisted witness for “murder”.
In a secondary aspect of this affair, the family of Bénédicte Belair, who has been denouncing for years a “botched” investigation, had filed a complaint with a civil party against a gendarme, the former director of these investigations.
On January 16, the latter was indicted for forgery and placed under judicial supervision, Senlis prosecutor Loïc Abrial told AFP.
“Accused of having produced false reports”he was indicted for forgery in public documents by a custodian of public authority, said the victim's sister, Sylvaine Grévin, also president of the national federation of victims of feminicides.
In two reports, he indicated that he had contacted the general practitioner and a friend of Bénédicte Belair and that neither had anything to say concerning domestic violence that she might have suffered.
-Samples destroyed
Interviewed by the courts three years ago, the doctor declared that the gendarme had never contacted him, according to Ms. Grévin.
Bénédicte Belair's family also filed a complaint against another gendarme who had gone to Bénédicte Belair's home on March 25, 2017 for a report of domestic violence, but who had taken no measures to protect her. This complaint triggered the opening of an investigation into “failure to assist a person in danger”.
Bénédicte Belair was found dead at her home in Pont-Sainte-Maxence on April 4, 2017.
The investigation initially focused on the possibility of a fall and was closed four months after the incident.
In 2018, the samples taken in the home and on the body of the deceased were destroyed following an administrative error, destruction of seals for which the State was condemned for “gross misconduct”.
