Victorine’s family (foreground) at the start of the trial of Ludovic B. who confessed to the murder of the student.
AFP
Four years after the murder of Victorine Dartois, an 18-year-old student found dead in a stream in Isère, the trial of one of her neighbors, who admits to having killed her, but denies any attempted rape, has opened Monday in Grenoble.
Also tried for robbery with violence
Ludovic B., 29, appeared in the box of the Isère Assize Court shortly after 2:00 p.m., short hair and gray polo shirt, gave his name, first name and place of birth, before calmly listening to the president state the facts. “I am happy that the judgment can finally begin so that I can provide as many answers and explanations as possible to the Dartois family even if I am aware that everything I can say will not repair what I did “, he then declared.
Sitting in the front row, the young girl’s family appeared very moved, hugging each other to comfort each other. Their lawyer, Me Kelly Monteiro, made no statement to the press.
Tried for murder preceded by an attempted rape of Victorine Dartois, Ludovic B. will also be tried for a violent rape committed in September 2018 in the Rhône on another young woman, then aged 20. After the jury has been drawn and the president’s report, the debates, scheduled to last two weeks, should begin with the hearing of a first personality witness.
Report from his best friend
Victorine Dartois, a BTS communications student, disappeared on September 26, 2020 while walking back to her family home in Villefontaine, about thirty kilometers southeast of Lyon, after an afternoon of shopping with friends. Her body was found in a creek less than 48 hours later, her jeans abandoned nearby. The autopsy established that she had been strangled and drowned.
The disappearance and death of the young girl had caused strong emotion in Villefontaine and the surrounding area. Nearly 6,000 people paid tribute to him during a white march on October 4, 2020.
Ludovic B., manager of a transport company aged 25 at the time, was arrested in Villefontaine twenty days after the murder, thanks to the report of his best friend, in whom he had confided and who had attempted in vain to convince him to denounce himself. This father of a young child had already been convicted ten times for common law offenses, but without going to prison thanks to reduced sentences.
“Ready to say things”
In police custody, he admitted to the murder of the young woman, but denied any attempted rape, claiming to have encountered the victim while jogging then, after an involuntary shove and an argument, to have “panicked” and “clenched the neck” of the student before hiding her body.
Ludovic B. is “ready to say things” and intends to address the victim’s family from the start, his lawyer, Me Arnaud Adelise, declared at the beginning of November on BFMTV.
On the day of the incident, his client had “consumed cocaine”, he argued. As for the sexual motive, it is “denied by the analyzes which were carried out since there is no dermabrasion on the genitals” on the body of the young girl, he affirmed.
The decision of the Assize Court is expected around December 6. Ludovic B. faces life imprisonment.
(afp/rk)
