A “dominating personality” in “predatory mode”: life imprisonment was requested Thursday in Grenoble against Ludovic Bertin for the murder in 2020 of an 18-year-old student, Victorine Dartois, whom he admits to having strangled and drowned but denies attempted rape.
The 29-year-old accused did not kill the young woman on a “whim”, but according to a “carefully calculated scenario”, launched Attorney General Françoise Benezech, asking that the sentence be accompanied by a period security of 25 years.
Ludovic Bertin was looking for a “prey to rape” and that’s why he attacked Victorine Dartois, a “killing that he ends by drowning her alive”, she asserted in a implacable indictment.
“Yes, he’s a murderer!” retorted the accused’s lawyer, Me Arnaud Adelise, while insisting on the absence of evidence of attempted rape. Denouncing the “emotional burden weighing on this case”, he called on the jurors to stick “to the Law”.
The verdict is expected on Friday.
On September 26, 2020, Victorine Dartois, who was starting a BTS in communications at the time, disappeared while returning on foot to the family home in Villefontaine, in the north of Isère, after an afternoon of shopping.
Two days later, his body was found in a stream, his pants next to him. The crime aroused strong emotion in the region and beyond, and a white march brought together thousands of people.
Twenty days later, the police arrested Ludovic Bertin, denounced by a friend in whom he had confided. This father of a young child, then aged 25 and manager of a transport company, already had a long record but no time in prison.
– “Untouchable” –
He quickly admitted the murder, claiming to have encountered the young woman while jogging and to have “panicked” after an altercation with her, and under the effect of “cocaine”. But he denied any attempted rape, a line he maintained throughout the trial, without convincing.
When we question him, “we don't get much from Mr. Bertin and we no longer get anything when we confront him with these inconsistencies”, underlined the general advocate.
For Ms. Benezech, the material elements are however “indisputable”: this “dominating personality” acted “in a predatory mode, by spotting his victim” before acting with “coldness and determination”.
As for the rape committed two years earlier, in the Rhône department, on a young woman named “Vicky”, of whom Ludovic Bertin is also accused, it “helps shed light on the facts committed to the detriment of Victorine Dartois”, believes the magistrate .
And if he denies it again, it is because “we are touching the untouchable, for him it is psychologically impossible” to confess to rape, underlines the general advocate, whose tone rises several times in the face of this man who remains impassive.
– “Manipulator” –
His requisitions were welcomed by the lawyer for the Dartois family. They “are commensurate with the alleged facts and their seriousness, but also with the attitude of Mr. Bertin since October 14, 2020,” Me Kelly Monteiro told the press during a hearing recess.
“We all understood what he tried to do to her, but Victorine resisted at the cost of her life,” she had previously pleaded, accusing the accused of giving more importance to “the media, to his family, to his image”, as well as to Victorine's loved ones.
Heard in the witness box, the father of the young girl also denounced the attitude of the accused. “He asked for forgiveness from his family, not from us,” regretted James Dartois, his face closed, barely containing his emotion. “He is a manipulator, a monster who kills for pleasure”, “I hope that justice will be exemplary”.
At the end of the day, he said he was “empty”. “We have only had lies, we will not be able to forgive,” he confided to a few journalists. But “we will try to rebuild ourselves, move forward and mourn.”
