Little Kamilya, 7 years old, died after being hit by a motocross bike on August 29, 2024 in Vallauris (Alpes-Maritimes). The suspect believes, this Tuesday, September 10 during a hearing that the rear wheel was unintentional. The prosecution requested his placement in pretrial detention.
Black glasses, grey shirt and beige trousers, head sometimes bowed. Matteo B., a young work-study student, once again faced justice on Tuesday 10 September during the appeal hearing deciding whether or not to place him in pre-trial detention, 12 days after the death of little Kamilya, aged 7, in Vallauris (Alpes-Maritimes).
On August 29, the little girl was hit by a motocross bike he was riding before being placed in an artificial coma. When she arrived at the hospital, the girl’s prognosis was very serious. She finally died two days later, on Sunday, September 1.
This Tuesday, before the investigating chamber of the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal, the suspect appeared very affected. “I did not want this at all (…). I have always been a model person,” explained the man who has a clean record and had not taken drugs or alcohol before driving.
“It’s traumatic. I don’t sleep, I eat very little (…), when I close my eyes I have the scene in my head,” the young man continues.
The president of the investigating chamber recalled that today’s hearing was to decide whether Matteo should go into pretrial detention or not and that there would be no question of guilt, although they should be addressed. The hearing was finally adjourned for deliberation on Wednesday at 11:45 a.m. The public prosecutor’s office requested that he be placed in pretrial detention.
The sequence of video surveillance images
The president of the investigating chamber referred to the video surveillance images on Tuesday. According to him, they show the continuous line of cars that prevented a motorbike from pulling back at any time in the event of overtaking, and which therefore prohibited it according to the highway code.
The magistrate then continued, indicating that Matteo on an MT07 motorcycle could be seen moving out of the line of cars and into the middle of the lane. A movement “which can give the impression that you are moving out of the way, not just to overtake but for something else,” he emphasizes.
However, Matteo and his lawyer would later assure him during the hearing: if the young man moved aside, it was because in this narrow street, the motorcycle driver was afraid of the doors opening onto the road to let passengers off.
“The bike lifted, I lost my balance”
Then comes the subject of the rearing motorbike, no one disputes the facts this Tuesday but the reasons differ. For the attorney general, the act of rearing the motorbike was obviously intentional while the speed declared by the accused (30km/h) is according to him unreal. “You could not rear up at 30km/h and throw a body more than 20 meters, it is impossible.”
For Matteo B., as for his lawyer, this rear wheel was involuntary. “It only took a touch of gas for the bike to go up,” says Matteo B., (…) the bike got up, I lost my balance.”
“I couldn’t avoid the little girl,” he concluded with difficulty on Tuesday at the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal.
“He is so shocked”
Finally, the hearing addressed the issue of his pre-trial detention. Contrary to the prosecution and the investigating judge of Grasse who had based their request for a detention warrant on the need to protect the person under investigation – which the judge of liberties and detention had not accepted – the attorney general asked the court to justify his placement in detention on the basis of a risk of repetition of the offence.
“He can start again even if he no longer has his license,” he justified, comparing Matteo to bikers “who consider themselves conquerors” and cause road insecurity.
Although he added that Matteo was not the kind of person “you see in some neighborhoods provoking the police” by doing rodeos. Finally, the attorney general regretted not being able to invoke the disturbance of public order to justify the detention and spoke of the family, as well as public opinion “which does not understand why he is still free.”
Matteo B’s lawyer, for her part, said that no criteria justified this provisional detention, and that his client was not likely to ride his motorbike again.
“He is incapable of it (…) he is so shocked,” said the suspect’s lawyer on Tuesday.
The latter also mentioned a reason of protection. On the day of the accident, the police had to put him in his car to make him escape a potential mob vindictiveness, while emphasizing that his parents have moved and that there is no proven threat.
As is his right, Matteo B. spoke last and concluded by asking to remain under judicial supervision. His mother is said to be very ill and his father needs him. The young man is being charged with involuntary manslaughter by the driver of a motor vehicle and a manifestly deliberate violation of a duty of safety or prudence. He risks seven years in prison.
Maxime Brandstaetter with Alixan Lavorel
