Joao Afonso Pires is on trial for three days by the Assize Court of Draguignan for the murder of his wife in 2021 in Fréjus. Iraida was killed with 32 stab wounds. A relentlessness that brings to mind the phenomenon of “overkill” described by certain researchers.
This Sunday, February 7, 2021, Iraida, 43, died in the chaos of her apartment in Fréjus. Leandro (his first name has been changed), his eldest son, alerts the neighborhood: “He killed my mother, call the police.” The victim’s husband, Joao Afonso Pires, is surrounded by the couple’s neighbors, then arrested by the police.
When help arrived, Iraida was lying face down on the ground. Next to her, two knives stained with a ruddy red. The forensic doctor’s assessment will identify 32 wounds on the victim’s body.
Joao Afonso Pires appears, from this Monday, June 24, 2024, before the Var Assize Court, in Draguignan, for murder of a spouse. He faces life imprisonment.
This extremely violent crime echoes many other cases of femicide, in which the attacker attacks the body of the victim. A phenomenon that the Anglo-Saxons call “overkilling”: “It is translated into French as “supermurder” and this refers to the fact that the aggressor goes beyond the violence necessary to kill the victim”explains journalist Pauline Chanu, author of the documentary series Femicides, the global war against womenbroadcast on France Culture.
This outburst of violence, far from being exceptional, is one of the characteristic features of feminicides. A British study highlights that of the 110 women killed in the United Kingdom in 2020, 45% were victims of secondary murder.
This notion can refer to many forms of abuse ante or post mortem : barrage of blows, sexual violence, use of acid, etc. “We find here a logic of appropriation of the victim’s body in the feminicide”notes Pauline Chanu. “This involves the total annihilation of the victim.”
Feminist literature highlights the social role played by this “spectacularisation“femicide: “The anthropologist Rita Laura Segato speaks of overkill as a “writing on women’s bodies”, a warning signal to other women who are told by men to stay in their place. This maintains a climate of terror. explains Pauline Chanu. Some authors even speak of a form of “domestic terrorism”.
In cases of femicide, the ultraviolence of the crime scene is not the sign “of a spontaneous act, a sort of freak out”notes the documentary maker : “On the contrary, it is part of a continuum of violence which increases and is accompanied by total control of the victim’s actions and actions by the aggressor. This overkill illustrates the dehumanization at work in this process.”
For his part, Joao Afonso Pires, now 74 years old, told investigators that he had “lost my mind” during an argument, during which the victim allegedly slapped him. The investigation, however, showed that the police had visited the marital home twice, in 2018 and in 2020. Furthermore, several neighbors claim to have witnessed domestic violence against Iraida. Investigations also revealed the fact that the victim was preparing to file for divorce.
Civil parties at the hearing, Iraida’s two children are represented by lawyer Me Marie Casanova. Both were left without psychological assistance on the day of their mother’s murder, reports Was-Matin. They have since been placed in Child Welfare.
In 2021, 143 violent deaths between couples were recorded by the police and gendarmerie services. That year, 122 women were killed by their partners, compared to 21 men.
The trial of Joao Afonso Pires continues until Wednesday evening, June 26, before the Var Assize Court. He is presumed innocent until a possible final conviction by the courts.
