Very important audience for Dany Leprince this Thursday, December 12, 2024 in Paris. From 2 p.m., the Sarthois will be heard by the investigating committee of the Court of Revision, as part of a review procedure started in 2021. Dany Leprince, sentenced to life imprisonment in 1997 for the quadruple murder of his brother, his sister-in-law and his two nieces in Thorigné-sur-Dué in 1994, continues to proclaim his innocencethirty years later.
Not the first request
A previous request for review was initiated in 2006. The review commission then referred the matter to the Court in July 2010 and ordered a suspension of the sentence, questioning the presence of Dany Leprince at the scene of the tragedy. He regained his freedom, but in April 2011, the Court of Review rejected the request and demanded his return to prison. His lawyer at the time, Me Yves Baudelot, reacted strongly on Radio France.
loading
Dany Leprince would only leave prison a year later, in October 2012, the security measure of his sentence having been lifted.
New elements
This time, Me Olivier Morice, Dany Leprince's lawyer, ensures you have new elementscompiled in a 200 page memorywhich he will present this Thursday, December 12 before the investigating committee of the Court of Revision. “My client is determined to have his innocence recognized, which he has proclaimed for more than thirty years. We produced more than 1,500 acknowledgments of receipt that he had sent to the various Presidents of the Republic during his period of detention. And above all, there are elements new. We will demonstrate that what weighed in his conviction at the time collapses today“, estimates Mr. Olivier Morice.
Since 2021, additional investigations were carried out at the request of Dany Leprince and his lawyer. According to them, recent advances in the case demonstrate that the scenario of Martine Compain, ex-wife of the accused at the time, is incoherent. Moreover, “an on-site simulation demonstrated that the testimony against Célia, her daughter, was completely false“, assures Dany Leprince's lawyer. Finally, the only survivor of the tragedy, Solene, today claims to have been instrumentalized by his nanny and by the investigating judge at the time, and demands a new trial.
Multiple procedures at the same time
In parallel with this request for review, a legal investigation against As part of this investigation, Martine Compain was placed under the status of “assisted witness” on April 9, at the end of a nearly four-hour hearing before an investigating judge in Le Mans. This status is an intermediary between that of the witness and that of the accused. The Le Mans public prosecutor's office, which had requested the indictment of Martine Compain, appealed.
“It is not by attacking his ex-wife that Dany Leprince will prove his innocencethis is not the right path. There is no evidence to prove that my client participated in any way in this tragedy. We can communicate as much as we want, sometimes at the cost of distorting things, there are no more new elements than there were 30 years ago. There has recently been a succession of hearings, Martine Compain was interviewed at length and was not indicted. reacts Me William Bourdon, lawyer for Dany Leprince's ex-wife.
Recognize that justice was wrong
The decision of the investigating committee will not be known for several weeks. It may either order additional information, reject the request or transmit it to the Court of Review. Only the latter can comment on the annulment or not of the criminal conviction of Dany Leprince. Is this possible? Will the new elements be enough? Difficult to say according to Bernard Nicolas, journalist, author of the book “Dany Leprince, they stole my life“, who has been following this case for 15 years.
“At the time, what struck me was Martine Compain's semi-confession who said “I may have killed someone, I need to be helped.” For me, this was a new element which should lead to the review of the trial. That wasn't the case. Justice finds it very difficult to question itselflooking in the mirror. Will today's magistrates agree to recognize that yesterday's magistrates were wrong? It's not safe. In any case, I think the arguments are there, they are solid. But will they be enough? Mystery”, he concludes.
