the essential
At the trial of Jean-Philippe Desbordes this Tuesday, November 19, several witnesses were heard by the court of the Foix Assize Court this Tuesday, outlining the perverse mechanics of the former journalist.
This Tuesday morning, two ex-partners of Jean-Philippe Desbordes described, as witnesses, the same mechanism of control of which they were victims. First a fascination with the character, brilliant and cultured, then a progressive submission leading to psychological or, more rarely, physical violence. Sabrina*, wearing a black top with a wide collar and glasses as light as her blonde hair, met him in 1998 in a Parisian bar where she worked. Having fallen in love, she describes a gradual deterioration of their relationship, until 2011, and her perversion. “He made me give dictations where I wrote about us in the third person. He had built a case against me. I was afraid to leave, I was like facing a monster […] The only way to calm her down was to submit to her sexual needs.” Their respective sons, absent from the debates, would then have witnessed her humiliations. “It was necessary that [mon fils] know how bad his mother was. He convinced me that I was the cause of his unhappiness.”
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Eveline*, in her forties, also suffered the perverse mechanics of the former journalist. In court, she recounted this Tuesday morning her meeting with the accused in 2013, her fascination still, the influence then, the violence still. While she has to evaluate him in a professional setting, she falls “under the spell”. “My colleagues considered him authoritarian and dangerous. I thought they didn't understand him, that they didn't see his extraordinary intelligence. He was brilliant.”
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“I was a slave, he kept me on a leash”: at the trial of Jean-Philippe Desbordes, the alleged victims break the silence
“I was unworthy of the trees when I walked in the forest.”
Not feeling well in her relationship, hoping for motherhood but with a sterile partner, the 38-year-old woman leaves everything to follow Jean-Philippe Desbordes in the Drôme. She then describes the first behaviors that trouble her. “I couldn’t borrow a book without asking him.” The situation would have worsened when she announced her pregnancy. His violent and dangerous side woke up,” the woman describes, in tears, her eyes clear behind large glasses. “He was so angry, an unexpected surge of violence, I thought he was going to kill me. “The man imposes the child's first name, and continues to isolate Eveline. “He made me write letters to my parents, to my sisters, to my unborn child to leave his mark. For him, I was unworthy of everything, of the universe, of the trees when I walked in the forest.” Convinced of being ill, the woman is invited by the accused to consult a therapist. “She is the only one mistake that made it. She saved my life. […] She told me to leave because he was dangerous for me.”
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Rape with torture, physical abuse, deprivation of care… The trial of former journalist Jean-Philippe Desbordes opened this Monday
