the disturbing personality of the accused “Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde”

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A man with a chaotic background who became a torturous and manipulative monster. This Monday, November 25, 2024, the trial of Olivier C. was held before the Paris Assize Court. The fifty-year-old is on trial for having, for several months, kidnapped and assaulted a couple in his apartment at the end of 2021. victims, suffering from mental disabilities, were beaten, tortured and raped. For this first day of hearing, the court returned to the atypical profile of the accused, where wanderings, addictions and violence led to horror.

“What I did was terrible”

This Monday afternoon, with his head shaved and his face buried in his anorak, Olivier C. seems quite harmless. At his side, Anna*. The latter is both victim and accused. She allegedly committed physical and sexual violence against her husband Raphaël*, at the instigation of Olivier C.. Never during the day of the hearing did their eyes meet.

For several hours, Olivier C. was questioned by the Assize Court about his career. Faced with the many corners of his tumultuous life, mentioned by magistrates and lawyers, he responded with great detail and courtesy. However, his affable tone will shift into tears when he talks about the facts: “I know that I will be punished very heavily. What I did was terrible.” He faces 30 years in prison.

A chaotic childhood

The existence of the accused already begins with complications. At the start of his life, he was raised by his grandparents in Nantes. His parents, who remained in Paris and were absent, took him back in charge around the age of 10. Olivier C. would have suffered from an “unbalanced and permissive” educational environment, according to the personality investigator. With his parents, his relationships are “explosive”. “I was unmanageable,” admits the accused.

His grandparents came to join him by renting an apartment in the same building, at 33 rue des Cascades. Adolescence becomes more and more critical. At 16, Olivier C. faked a burglary at his parents' house. He was thrown out two years later.

An almost marginal life

After these difficult young years, Olivier C.'s journey becomes even messier. At school, everything goes downhill, and the accused enters working life without diplomas. Over its 53 years of existence, he almost never works. “I had no purpose in life. I didn’t see any future,” he explains from the box.

Before the events, he lived from disability allowance (because I have genetic diabetes), and help from his parents. “They gave him a lot of money, for fear of his blackmail and his threats,” reveals the investigator. An example is worth a thousand words: faced with refusal from his parents, the accused robbed a grocery store with an imitation weapon. He gets two years suspended prison sentence.

“Half angel, half demon”

At the same time, Olivier C. leads a life in which wandering is mixed with addiction. Cannabis, alcohol in large quantities, chemsex… The excesses are numerous, but do not prevent the accused from having several romantic relationships. He has even two children from two different women. When questioned, his former companions paint a vitriolic portrait. “They describe him as manipulative, toxic and violent. He does not hesitate to blackmail suicide to avoid a breakup. He would choose dependent women for his relationships,” says the investigator.

Each relative mentions the ambivalence of the accused. The personality investigator speaks of an “affable” and “charming” man. To one of his former relationships, he is “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” According to his daughter, he has “an angel side and a demon side, perverse, uncomfortable and worrying”. Before the events, he lived in his grandparents' old apartment, surrounded by cockroaches and cat droppings.

A friendship that descends into horror

According to Olivier C., these “demons” will take up more and more space in his life until the facts. Since 2018, he has tied a friendly relationship with Raphaël and Annaa couple with mental disabilities. In 2021, the young woman will leave her partner to form a relationship with the accused. Raphaël continues to meet them. To do Olivier C. a favor, he runs errands for him, but keeps the change from the purchases without telling him.

Discovery, Raphaël's deception will cause the worst. One evening, he is kidnapped by Olivier C. and Anna, and taken to the unsanitary apartment on rue des Cascades. For three months, the victim is locked up and becomes the handyman, in order to “settle his debt”. The accused threatens him “to bring back gypsy friends” if he does not cooperate.

Three months of torture

In this sordid closed space, Raphaël's life becomes a nightmare. From his executioner, he receives punches and kicks. It is also burned with a lighter or with cigarettes. On several occasions, he is forced to sleep naked on the apartment's balcony. The pain is mixed with hunger, because he is barely fed. His former partner also hits him. “It was my dog,” she told investigators.

The violence is also sexual. Olivier C. forces Anna and Raphaël to have sex with each other all night long. Raphaël also suffers other abuses, is forced to perform fellatio on a neighbor or even to be penetrated by objects.

For Anna, life is also totally subject to the goodwill of Olivier C.. Forced to sleep with her former companion, she must also have sex with 24 men found on a dating application. Her companion and executioner hits her, also burns her with cigarettes, and forces her to kneel in coarse salt in order to increase the pain.

An “introspection” in prison

This nightmare situation ends after a report from the accused's children, who witnessed the violence. Olivier C. is arrested at his home. He is since incarcerated at Health. According to him, life in detention has done him a lot of good. The appointments with the psychologist would have allowed him to carry out his “introspection”. Have the demons left? However, they will haunt the courtroom until November 29, the day of the verdict.

*First names have been changed

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