“I wasted my youth, I did stupid things; but they ruined my future”: Adultery and a bloodbath before the Ariège assizes

“The blow was certainly delivered with extreme violence. We could say that it was a real shattering of the skull,” the forensic doctor said. A blow that shattered the body and life of David* on the night of March 7 to 8, 2020. When he appeared in the Foix courtroom in his wheelchair at 9:20 a.m. on this dreary morning, all eyes were on on him and the few curious people present can only imagine what happened to him, the rumor mill having spread its whispers before he even made his appearance.

The young man, barely twenty years old, is one of the victims in this chilling case of attempted assassination and violence before the Ariège courts. On the civil parties' bench, we find his family, but also Aurélie*, his ex-partner, whose knees are shaking on the bench, a manifestation of his discomfort, and Naël*, an acquaintance who did not appear at the rod.

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Facing them, Kévin* and Gaspard*, 24 and 27 years old respectively, appearing for these facts. Both are wisely dressed: white shirt buttoned all the way to the top and spiky hair for the first, the main culprit, black sweater over an equally white shirt and slicked back hair for the other, his presumed accomplice.

A room stained with blood

On March 7, 2020, the gendarmes intervened at 6:15 a.m. in a building in Lavelanet, informed of ongoing violence. On site, they found the front door broken, three people injured, the room stained with blood.

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According to the first testimonies, Kévin, then in a relationship with Aurélie and already violent towards her, cannot bear to learn that she has reconnected with her ex, David: he thought that he was still in a relationship with the young woman, mother of a little boy. He takes Gaspard to Lavelanet and, arriving at the bottom of the young woman's building, notices that she is having an evening there with David and Naël in particular. The insults fly, David throws a can at Kevin's car below, who drives away, but not for long.

When the party-goers have gone to bed, they are awakened by knocks: but who hit them, Kévin, Gaspard, both? Still on the stand, the first only admits to the violence against Aurélie, the second only to having broken the door.

Who was in the apartment doing the beating that night?

But this is one of the major questions of the trial, on which magistrates and lawyers – M^es Puig and Vitrac for the civil parties, M^es Fabbri, Daffis-Costa and Parra-Bruguière for the defense – will look at it at length during this first day of hearing.

This is because as the hearings progress, the witnesses' versions also vary, except for David who remembers nothing. He was the one who was hit the hardest that night, in addition to Naël and Aurélie who reported bruising and injuries: remaining in a coma for several days, he underwent several very serious operations, including the removal of part of the cranial vault which could not be compensated by the installation of a prosthesis.

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Today hemiplegic and epileptic, he moves in his chair towards the bar, his long curly black hair spreading over his shoulders: “I have gained 45 kg, I cannot work, I need help with everything…I'm on welfare, that is.” He continues, in a firm voice: “I wasted my entire youth, I did stupid things, I was incarcerated, I take responsibility for it; but now they have ruined my entire future.”