It is an unusual case that the Puy-en-Velay criminal court examined yesterday afternoon as part of an immediate appearance.
A 33-year-old man, incarcerated in Puy-en-Velay for a series of aggravated thefts (11 entries in his criminal record), benefited, on October 31, from exceptional permission for the day to leave prison to attend the funeral of his mother in Puy-de-Dôme. Except that after a few minutes at the funeral home, he asked his brother to take him to the station. He wanted at all costs to join his partner, who was several months pregnant. He promised to return for the ceremony scheduled for the afternoon.
Which he didn't do. And he did not return to the Puy remand center at 6:30 p.m. either, as planned. He was then considered an “escaped”. It took the police several days to find him. After a week on the run, he was finally located in Brioude. He was arrested on November 8 at 9 a.m. drunk (1.24 grams of alcohol per liter of blood) and in the presence of his pregnant partner.
He awaited his hearing yesterday in Puy-en-Velay in pre-trial detention. “I don’t know how to describe what you did. This reason for permission is legitimate. It is obvious that we are not going to deprive a son of burying his mother,” concedes the president of the court Nelly Pradeau, stunned by this story. “It’s total incomprehension. The judicial authority trusted you. How can you lean over your mother's coffin and leave? You betrayed your loved ones,” the president protests again.
