In the Channel, they let him die in excruciating pain

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Philippe L. was told that the women he hosted were toxic. Firefighters had intervened at his home some time before the facts of June 25, 2020because he was suffering from convulsions. They had found Nina and her partner Céline in her apartment. One of the firefighters had the impression that Philippe was not free at homethat he could not find peace there. Impression confirmed by Mario, Philippe's brother, who having called him on the telephone shortly before the events, at 7:20 p.m., had heard a woman screaming behind himthen another having picked up the phone putting an end to the conversation.

Philippe, as if caught by destiny

Present yesterday at the hearing, Mario admitted having advised his brother to no longer be around the woman we called Nina (the one who screamed during the call). Sandrine, her cousin, but who had been raised by Philippe's mother whom she loved like a brother, had advised her to break ties with these women who were dragging her into the world.

alheur and to get closer to her: one day, at his home, they had witnessed Nina's destructive madness, under the influence of alcohol, breaking everything in the apartment, forcing them to take refuge to protect themselves . The nurse who went to Philippe twice a day to give him treatment for his alcohol addiction (he was monitored by the Pontorson center), declared during the investigation that the two women were systematically present. She had tried to make him understand that “these people were bad for him. »

But Philippe was incapable of remaining alone.

Nicolas, who was not his son, but that of his wife, testified with tears in his eyes that he had been loved by Philippe like a father. “He always said he had three children. And he was happy when we told him that I looked like him” (which a portrait of Philippe on the courtroom screens allowed everyone to confirm). He was a loving, generous and funny father, emphasized his daughter, Marie. But the good father, too kind perhaps, was overtaken by “his inner demon”, his family, as his ex-wife, mother of Nicolas and the two children she had with him, said. She knew that he had had a difficult childhood, amid the violence that alcohol created in his parents' daily lives. This climate had created psychological problems in him which he had never managed to overcome. He worked in the restaurant business, he was a chef, a hard worker. He was far from his family world, in the South, in Menton. Redemption? But his deep illness had gradually resurfaced. He was partying, drinking.

The wife moved away in 2005. Philippe returned to Saint-Hilaire-du-Harcouët (Manche), as if sucked in by his destiny, that is to say the worst.

“I'm sure he moved away to Normandy to protect us. He stepped aside so we could live our lives. »

Grateful, because this father gave him, like his brother and sister, strong values, “respect for others, love of work. Thanks to him, all three of us have a job, a balanced, stable life. » And line thrown in the direction of the three accused: “None of us has a criminal record. »

Words and images of horror

This second day of the trial had scheduled the experts' time. The fire expert placed the debates in their tragic dimension, and he pulverized the incomplete and contradictory statements of the three accomplices of the drama of June 25, 2020 as brutally as an explosion triggered by a lighter flame.

Standing, facing Nina, Philippe received, as much as the sofa in the corner on which he was standing, half of the contents of the can of gasoline that the young woman projected in his direction, a very volatile material which immediately enveloped the man. of a toxic cloud. All it took was a spark. Nina provoked it: everything ignited in an explosion, 500°C at the end of the lighter, 250° in the cloud including the flesh of the standing man, shirtless or clothed, we don't know. One of the accused saw it in flames before fleeing. Some time later, the neighbor came to check and discovered Philippe not standing, but on the ground. The expert explained that, intoxicated by the fumes, he had fallen while trying to escape. While crawling towards him under the smoke to get him out, the neighbor realized that he was conscious. His fall out of the toxic zone, giving him oxygen, could explain this return to consciousness. But Philippe's body was burned, seriously, to the 3rd degree, on 65-70% of the surface of the skin. The rescuer, pulling Philippe towards him, felt his hands sliding over his body. Horrible detail: it was the skin that came under the pressure he exerted.

The forensic doctor in turn detailed the damage caused to the body and inside of the burned man, an exhaustive description underlined by a series of difficult to bear photos of the damage caused by the fire.

“It was beyond any therapeutic medical resource. There was no way he could survive. »

As for the pain, it would have been around 8 or 9 on the feeling scale. Philippe was immediately put into an artificial coma. He died a month and a half later. “Without powerful sedatives, the suffering would have been unbearable. »

Today, it will be up to everyone to learn the lessons of this tragedy and demand that justice be done: Philippe's relatives, through the voice of their lawyer, the society whose interests will be recalled by the general advocate who will propose for the jurors to pronounce appropriate sanctions, and the three accused defended by their lawyers. Remember that Nina, accused of murder and involuntary arson of property but started by a deliberate act, faces 30 years in prison. His partner and his mother, accused of failing to assist a person in danger, face 5 years of imprisonment.

Verdict today, Wednesday December 4, 2024, in the afternoon.

The film mentioned yesterday in the report of the first day of this trial was My Fair Ladyde George Cukor, sorti en 1964.

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