witnesses “endowed with a moral conscience could finally decide to help justice”, hopes Thierry Moser, the historic lawyer of the Villemin couple

40 years after the disappearance of little Grégory, the retired lawyer remembers a chaotic start to the investigation and denounces the “unhealthy rivalry” between the Nancy judicial police and the gendarmes at the time.

“I may be a little naive in telling you this.“but witnesses”endowed with a moral conscience could finally decide to help justice move forward“, points out Wednesday October 16 on France Bleu Sud Lorraine, Thierry Moser, historical lawyer of the Grégory affair. Officially retired, he remains active on this file. He defended Christine Villemin before becoming a friend of the parents of the little boy of 4 years old, found drowned, bound hand and foot, in Docelles (Vosges) in a river, Vologne, on October 16, 1984.

40 years later to the day, Thierry Moser remains hopeful that the truth will emerge. “We know that Mr. Bernard Laroche was certainly one of the actors in this framework of this family crime. It’s not me who says it, it’s the ruling of the Dijon Court of Appeal“But, he adds, “it’s a piece of truth“. He hopes that other elements will emerge thanks to science. Expertises are underway. On March 20, the Dijon Court of Appeal ordered new complementary expertises in matters of DNA and voice recognition.

The retired lawyer has bitter memories of the chaotic beginnings of the investigation. “I very quickly noted the manifest incompetence of the investigating judge Lambert“. The ex-magistrate, nicknamed “The Little Judge“, committed suicide in 2017 after a new twist in the Grégory affair. “It made me feel totally overwhelmed by the situation. He did not seem to dominate his file, he seemed totally irresolute, lost, versatile“, remembers Thierry Moser.

He also denounces the “very unhealthy rivalry between the Nancy judicial police and the gendarmerie“at the start of the investigation.”The police worked with a shockingly scandalous bias and I weigh my words when saying thisa”, he declared on France Bleu Sud Lorraine. Former gendarmerie Colonel Étienne Sesmat, who commanded the Epinal company in 1984, also denounced this Wednesday on France Bleu Lorraine Nord the “attacks sometimes very violent and very unfair” at the time.

It was about discrediting our work. So, I realized that I had to give my testimony, to say what we experienced, by acting as spokesperson for all the gendarmes involved in this affair.

Etienne Sesmat

Former Colonel of the Epinal gendarmerie

Étienne Sesmat underlines “the extreme determination of the magistrates who succeed one another in Dijon to do everything to ensure that a judicial response is given to this case“.