We will never know what led a young temporary worker from the Stellantis factory in Sochaux to set fire to several dozen new cars in the parks along the A 36 motorway. It was during the night of February 11 to 12, 2023, after a birthday party.
At his trial, the 22-year-old young man simply said that he did not know why he had acted like this. In detention since the events, he was sentenced to 30 months in prison, with continued detention, in addition to compensation from the companies. THE damage is estimated at more than €3.6 million.
Why these damages and fires in the Stellantis factory parks in the middle of the night? It is the big question that crossed this hearing, without finding an answer. 40 new cars burned, 90 traveled in total. Dozens of photovoltaic panels destroyed. Colossal damage: €3.6 million.
For what ? We will have to be content with a litany of “ I don’t know “. In the box, a placid, cold young man, without emotions, without empathy and without explanations. “ I was drunk. And smoked cannabis. I don’t know “.
A boy that his colleagues and his superiors nevertheless present as a model temporary worker, but to whom the expert psychiatrist reports a destructive and sociopathic character, but not an arsonist. “ It’s an exploding pressure cooker » said his lawyer, Maître Valérie Chassard. Of course, he had enough of this high-pressure work, for a salary of just over €1,000, but that’s not why he slipped up so much.
That night, he entered the site, alone on a bicycle, with his professional badge, before ransacking offices and getting behind the wheel of several new cars and setting them on fire. 6 separate departures on the site. With a modest lighter, slashing seats and leaving the doors open to facilitate conflagration.
Then, the young man fled, throwing his bike over a fence, before rushing into the city. His reaction the next day “ I didn’t think it was that serious.” Two days later, Monday, he knew he would be arrested when he returned to the factory. “I expected that”. Why all of this ? We won’t know.
The young man was sentenced to 30 months in prison. A judgment in accordance with the requisitions of the public prosecutor.
