Within a few centimeters, this case would have been judged by a criminal court. But this Friday, it was before the Melun criminal court that Paul*, 22 years old, appeared for acts of violence with weapons resulting in an incapacity for work for 90 days. He is accused of having, on January 5, 2021, stabbed Stephen*, 31, in the chest.
The facts date from January 5, 2021. Around 3 p.m., the police were called for a man injured with a knife, at the intersection of rue Barthel and quai Pasteur, in Melun. Aged 30, he had a 2 cm bleeding wound on his chest. He said he had been stabbed. The attacker, whom the victim said she did not know, had fled.
Initially, the victim indicated that he did not wish to file a complaint, speaking of a gratuitous attack. Despite the absence of a complaint, an investigation was opened by Melun-Val de Seine urban security investigators. An investigation which will make it possible to find the perpetrator using his DNA.
A trap ?
This Friday, June 28, we are three years after the events. In the dock, a blond man of 22, with clear eyes and an angelic face: Paul*. It is this man, aged 19 at the time of the attack, from a bourgeois family in Fontainebleau who is the author of the stabbing. At his side, his victim, 31 years old, from Martinique.
If at first, the victim indicated that she did not know her attacker. The elements of the investigation gave another version of the facts. Heard on the stand, Paul explains: “My ex-girlfriend was in contact with an Arnaud. He absolutely wanted my girlfriend to give him some things back. I was the one who went there to give back to him. When I arrived, it was an ambush. Looking back, I think it was my ex-girlfriend who orchestrated the whole thing. Two hooded men arrived. One of them took out a knife and turned off the car’s ignition. The tension rose. I punched him because I feared for my life because he was armed. Then I took a knife and stabbed him to defend myself,” Paul said.
Author convicted in 2020 for pimping
A version firmly denied by Stephen. “This man lies from A to Z. He came because he had a business with Arnaud. A business of women and cars. He started to threaten Arnaud. I was not armed. I told him he needed to calm down and then he stabbed me directly,” says Stephen. When he talks about “women’s business,” Stephen is talking about pimping.
In August 2020, Paul was convicted of aggravated pimping of minors. Facts for which he will receive a sentence of 18 months’ imprisonment, 12 months of which will be suspended, in the form of an electronic bracelet. Is this confrontation linked to this affair, in which his ex-girlfriend was involved?
While Stephen had a chest wound, Paul had a wound on his hand, which also looked like a stab wound. A witness confirmed that she saw the person who stabbed him in the chest with a bloody hand. “This suggests an exchange of violence,” notes the representative of the prosecution, who cites Stephen’s criminal record, whose last conviction, in 2023, concerns acts of group violence. A version on which the defense, provided by Me Mohamed Djema, relies. “My client was caught in a pincer movement by two men, one of whom was hooded. He had good reason to fear for his life,” before pleading self-defense.
12 months under bracelet required
There is one constant in both versions, it is their lack of credibility but also of precise and circumstantial elements. “I have the feeling that we will not succeed in having the last word of the story and yet the facts are extremely serious, 2 cm away, it was the heart”, the judge gets annoyed.
The Prosecutor’s Office upholds the facts of mutual violence and requires 12 months of firm imprisonment in the form of an electronic bracelet for Paul. And, 8 months suspended prison sentence against Stephen.
The judge will ultimately go further and sentence Paul to 2 years in prison, including 12 months in prison that he will serve under an electronic tag. He is prohibited from carrying a weapon for the next five years. Stephen, for his part, was sentenced to 12 months in prison in full with a two-year suspended probationary period.
(All names in this article have been changed)
