“I am truly overwhelmed, distressed to see them in real life”: Pierre Palmade, sentenced to two years in prison, faced his victims

Pierre Palmade was sentenced, Wednesday, to five years in prison, including two years, for aggravated involuntary injuries, after the car accident he caused on February 10, 2023, in Seine-et-Marne.

The actor will therefore be placed in detention, but not necessarily immediately, as provided for in the deferred committal warrant issued by the Melun criminal court.

“We cannot be too lenient when the damage has occurred and driving under the influence of drugs has caused a tragedy,” had argued the prosecutor, Marie-Denise Pichonnier in her requisitions.

“I would like to ask your forgiveness”

The accident left three seriously injured, in addition to the actor who was placed in intensive care for three days: a 38-year-old man, his 6-year-old son and his 27-year-old sister-in-law, who lost the baby she was expecting.

“The serious injuries of MY and the trauma of Mrs. C., it knocked me down. I am really overwhelmed, tested to see them in real life”explains the comedian at the stand who turns, livid, towards his victims.

“I would like to ask you for forgiveness from the depths of my being, sincerely”he said, his voice trembling. Sitting in the front row, Mila, the young woman who lost her baby, immediately responds with a “non” of the head.

“He killed my daughter, she was whole, I counted her fingers, she showed me her eyes, she left alone”she testifies.

“I’m in hell”

“I hope that one day the victims will accept my forgiveness. I understand their anger“, assures the comedian, taken back throughout the trial to the departmental 372 and to this journey of which he says he has no memory.

That evening, Pierre Palmade had just had three sleepless nights, between injections of 3-MMC (euphoric drug), cocaine and “chemsex”, when he got behind the wheel of his Peugeot 3008, leaving his country house in Cély -in-Beer with two drifting companions, to go get a meal at the local supermarket, before the arrival of his dealer.

“I see the three of us leaving the house feeling euphoric and then it’s dark, I open my eyes and I’m [à l’hôpital du] Kremlin-Bicetre”he describes.

His relatives tell him the facts: his car which went off course and hit a family’s vehicle. Broken lives. “I understand that I am in hell.”

6,000 euros per month

Since the accident, he explains that he “without work”, n’arrive “no more going on stage” and lives with €6,000 of monthly income, thanks to “basically copyright”.

He says he is totally abstinent, followed in a day hospital three times a week, but also by a psychotherapist and Narcotics Anonymous.

“Before the accident, I had really lost the taste for life and now, with the means I have given myself, I believe I have rediscovered the taste for life,” he slips.

The one who is waiting for him now will, one way or another, go to prison.