The man suspected of having attacked a seamstress in the city center of Besançon (Doubs) on Friday June 21 was arrested on Tuesday June 25, the prosecutor’s office announced. He denies all the facts of which he is accused.
He was unknown to the police. The man suspected of having attacked a shopkeeper on Friday June 21, around 5 a.m., in the city center of Besançon (Doubs), was arrested by the police. He is a 36-year-old from Bisontin, father of a family. He is suspected of being the perpetrator of this stabbing attack.
Friday June 21, a professional seamstress, Véronique Chaney, walks to her workplace. On the road, she is stopped by a man who asks her for her cell phone. She refuses. He then hits him several times “using a kind of meat knife,” explained Alexia Marquis, deputy prosecutor of Besançon during a press conference. According to the victim, this blade measured around twenty centimeters. The individual was able to flee fairly quickly through the intervention of a third party “who opened his shutters”indicated the deputy prosecutor.
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Véronique Chaney was injured in the eye, shoulder, forearm, thigh and shin. His ITT (total incapacity for work) was set at nine days taking into account these injuries, but also the psychological impact.
The police and justice services linked this attack with another, which happened a little before: “We were able to make a link with a second attack which occurred before this act.”. The day after the attack on the seamstress, a man came to file a complaint, explaining that he too had been attacked. The attack took place on rue de Belfort which is located near avenue Denfert Rochereau where the woman was attacked.
He also explains that he was accosted by a man who was in a vehicle, a Peugeot 208, and who asked for his cell phone.
Alexia Marquis, deputy public prosecutor
Faced with the man’s refusal, he began to insult him and cock his arm as if to strike him. “The victim immediately turned around, fled and had the reflex to jump over a low wall and take refuge behind a bush,” explains Alexia Marquis.
Thanks to the link that was made between the two attacks, investigators were able to find the vehicle and identify the license plate. This allowed the suspect to be arrested.
He was immediately taken into custody. In his statements, he denies all the facts with which he is accused. According to him, he did not use his vehicle that evening, he stayed at home without ever leaving.
Alexia Marquis, deputy prosecutor
The man claims to have lent his vehicle to a person of whom he has a photo in his phone, but whose address or telephone number he does not know.
The vehicle was found in the rue de Vesoul and during the search, investigators discovered a sort of meat knife measuring 26 centimeters. The suspect claims to be unaware of the presence of this weapon in his vehicle. “DNA investigations will be carried out on this weapon”, assures the deputy prosecutor.
Throughout the incident and well after, the alleged attacker’s phone was turned off: “His phone terminal was last seen in the town of Thise at 4:41 a.m.”. A photographic board was also presented to the two victims. These formally identify the author of their attack.
He is a 36-year-old man, married, with three children and living in Besançon. “He suffered redundancy a few months ago, he worked in a car factory,” specifies Alexia Marquis. His wife explains that he sank into alcohol and that he would have spent a stay at the Novillars hospital center for treatment. His wife was also heard about her husband’s presence at the home that night. “But she explains that, as they live in separate rooms, she had no idea whether or not he had been able to leave the house.”.
For the moment, the man is awaiting a psychiatric assessment. He will be judged on August 26, 2024, at 2 p.m. in an immediate deferred appearance. The prosecution requested his placement in pre-trial detention.
