Thursday June 27 and Friday June 28, the Charente-Maritime Assize Court, meeting in Saintes, judges a 58-year-old man, accused of having attempted to murder (premeditated act) his daughter and kill his wife, Wednesday June 17 March 2021, in the parking lot of the Maine Gaudin equestrian center, in Saint-Palais-sur-Mer, near Royan.
That day, around 6:30 p.m., the Royan police officers were called following a knife attack. A 55-year-old man emerged from a small woods, near the parking lot. Armed with a kitchen knife, he attacked his 12-year-old daughter. His wife, 48 years old, intervened to protect the teenager who was seriously injured by the blade in the left breast.
Providential arrival
The providential arrival of Jérôme Garnier, riding instructor, made it possible to avoid the worst. It was he who was able to protect the young girl and who put the fifty-year-old to flight who was attacking his wife. Mother and daughter are evacuated to Royan hospital. The forty-year-old has serious injuries to her right hand.
At the beginning of the evening, the author was arrested at the Royan emergency room where he went to have a wound on his wrist treated. To the police, he explained that he tried to end his life by cutting his veins.
Separation
The court will try to understand how this uneventful father got there. The trigger would be when his wife informed him of her desire to divorce. Between March 8 and 16, the couple increased their discussions regarding their definitive separation. It was obviously the very morning of March 17 that he decided on his disastrous plan.
In the hearing, he will say that he had wanted to commit suicide, before changing his mind, and wanted to punish his ex-wife by killing their daughter. If the versions of the parties agree on the attempted murder of the teenager, they diverge on the violence committed against the mother. He continues to deny having wanted to kill his wife or even having stabbed her in the neck. The verdict is expected Friday at the end of the day.
