Friday, the executives of FC Grenoble at the time came to speak. But they were not present at the strategic moments of that fatal night. We have nevertheless identified certain contours of this affair.
A week of debates to observe what we call human dough: the destinies that intersect to in fine produce a tragedy, whatever the outcome of the trial. All the human fragility before us, the weaknesses of one evening, bad habits, the group effect, the feeling of impunity, the spell of alcohol and this compulsive use of a magical or evil instrument, the cell phone. The court watched the famous 55 seconds filmed by Denis Coulson, which immortalized a crucial scene, gloomy and sordid as can be. But whatthe interprstate to draw from it? ““Objectification” of a young girl incapable of expressing her consent (or not) or a consented scene between adults regardless of its ugliness? “TEveryone can interpret this video differently. Besides, the investigators themselves did not all have the same position.” explained Corinne Dreyfus-Schmidt, lawyer for Denis Coulson.
The lawyers of the civil party around Anne Cadiot-Feidt are categorical, the young girl could not express her consent, given her alcoholism, her level of consciousness was too altered. Didn't her friend declare the day before that she was “totally drunk” and didn't realize anything, to the point of not being able to stand up? Because of the closed session, we were unable to directly attend the debates, but we were told the images ofa young girl staggering out of the taxi at 4:30 a.m. What was his blood alcohol level about two hours later when the most “acts”“shocking crimes” were committed? Was she active at the time? We learned that she had slept in the meantime, the defense says two hours, the civil party Talk about only twenty minutes. Can delay and sleep reduce the effects of the dive bottle?
They did not try to cover up the affair
Today, Friday, the executives of FC Grenoble came before the Assize Court: Andrew Farley, Bernard Jackman but also Fabien Gengenbacher, current director of rugby at LOU who was in his last year as a player. The first two ensured that they had not sought to “cover up the affair” that they had warned their president. Gengenbacher, with remarkable class, showed his dismay at certain abuses and his desire to prevent them. But these men did not witness the cardinal facts of the case. No more than the companion of Loick Jammes, Who also came to testify to give the most positive image of the man whose life she has shared for several years. A lawyer told us that he was surprised that so much time was given to the witnesses and so little to the players themselves (a priori they will only have one afternoon, that of Tuesday, to speak to five).
A lawyer for the civil party cited a deposition from the president of the FCG explaining that Farley had told him that he was not surprised to see two protagonists involved in this lamentable affair. But Farleywould have been denied. Finally, an IT expert came to talk about the Whatsapp group created by a player, Loick Jammes, to tune the versions: “Have the same” in English. This specialist would have unearthed deleted messages. But the insides of digital devices sometimes feel like bottomless pits. It was not easy to find one's way in this series of information reconstructing the fatal night, up to the story of an argument between two players from Grenoble (but not accused), which allegedly made noise to the point of almost waking up All the floorencouraging comings and goings in the corridors, and facilitating the arrival of three of the defendants in the room shared by Coulson and Farrell. The seemingly innocuous event would have precipitated the tragedy.
It is certain, the sequence was fatal, awful, an evening which degenerates between a young girl who unwinds from an exam taken the same morning, but which assures that she had not started the evening pour “seeking adventure”, and a group of young men who decompress from a Top 14 match and who let themselves be intoxicated by the vices of the night and, we repeat, the group effect. Devastating dynamics. “A man can't be stopped” said Albert Camus. Anne Cadiot-Feidt gave us another perspective on this dark night: “Yes, din this file, we also see the obligation for anyone to provide assistance to someone who appears to us to be in a état which suggests that it is in condition of weakness. Observing someone who is intoxicated, without making a value judgment, and SO in a state of weakness, gives us a moral obligation first, then legal, or both at the same time, to do everything possible so that nothing happens to him. It seems simple.” On Monday, the young girl will make her voice heard in court. It will obviously be a very strong moment.
