Gard Matricide in Pujaut, assassination attempt in Vergèze… and the question of madness

Saturday evening a man, aged around twenty, was indicted and placed in pre-trial detention at the Nîmes judicial court after a matricide… Last week his mother, aged around sixty, was discovered dead at her home in the town of Pujaut. A scene which immediately made people think of a crime, with the victim's son who was found in the family home… The latter did not notify the emergency services. He was placed in police custody, then indicted and imprisoned for this “murder on the ascendant”. A man whose psychiatric past is known since, according to our information, he has spent several long stays in a specialized unit. He was reportedly hospitalized in a psychiatric ward on at least two occasions and, each time, for several months. If investigations continue in this case, psychiatric expertise will be necessary. The accused's lawyer, Maître Hamchouch, refuses to speak at this stage of the investigations.

The Gard criminal week was rich in events with the important investigations carried out by the Nîmes Research Section and the Gard gendarmerie group concerning another criminal case, that of the stabbing of the Vergèze jogger on January 11. . The perpetrator was found and arrested after six days of investigation. He would have mental health problems. Moreover yesterday, Sunday evening, during the briefing with the press of prosecutor Frédéric Kocher, the magistrate slipped: “He is a 25-year-old man, living near Vergèze, whose profile reveals psychiatric difficulties. He was taken into care by a care establishment four days previously and was granted leave on Friday. January 10, the day before the attack, added the prosecutor, who did not specify whether it was a temporary or permanent exit.

This man was indeed hospitalized in a psychiatric unit from Monday January 6 to Friday January 10. On the evening of Friday 10th he obtained a leave of absence which he had requested personally and which was granted to him. The next day, that is to say Saturday January 11, we know that he stabbed the mother six times who was jogging in the Vergèze park. According to our information, on Sunday evening January 12, he returned to the psychiatric care unit. The next day, Monday January 13, he was permanently released from the specialized center with the approval of the medical team. We know that he was then arrested by the Gard gendarmes on January 17. Here too the investigating judge will probably request, as is customary, a psychiatric expertise. Several specialist doctors should be commissioned. In this “assassination attempt” of the jogger, the attacker is defended by Maître Alexandre Zwertvaegher. The court officer also refused to speak at this stage of the investigation.

Because, in both cases, the stakes are high. Either trials if the abolition of discernment is rejected by the experts. Or criminal irresponsibility in the event of serious psychiatric disorders at the time of the attacks… An abolition of discernment which means that the perpetrators of crimes are never judged and depend solely on the medical world. Investigations into the two criminal cases have only just begun….