At the Isère Assize Court
In the Bertin family, we carefully avoid the subject. Never ask questions, even when you go to the visiting room to visit Ludovic, currently on trial for the murder of Victorine Dartois and the rape of another young woman. We prefer to use the terms « nonsense” or “that” to describe the brother’s criminal actions. As if we should bury the dust under the rug or refuse to admit what happened. Moreover, “deep subjects” have no place in discussions, they are only discussed on the “surface” or never at all.
Called to testify on Tuesday before the Isère Assize Court, the brothers of the accused had all the difficulty in the world talking about him. His daily cocaine consumption? “I didn’t know,” replies the eldest. His infidelities? “I didn’t know about it. He wouldn’t have confided in me. » The seven stab wounds his former brother-in-law gave him during an argument? “We didn’t talk about it too much,” stammered the witness in front of the president of the Assize Court, somewhat taken aback. “He’s still your brother. Do you think you know him,” asks Valérie Blain. Response from the person concerned: “Yes, but he’s not the person I spent the most time with. » “And regarding the facts, you don’t have any questions to ask him?” No, no more than that. »
“I wanted him to die but thank God I learned to love him”
His younger brother is hardly more talkative. The trial “doesn’t interest him,” he says, turning his back on Victorine’s mother who shakes her head to contain angry tears. “I never asked him why he did that. He ruined lives, it’s sad,” he says, without a single bit of emotion in his voice. Only the fragile Samuel opens up more, letting his sadness burst forth. Head shaved on the side, short dreadlocks on his head, the forty-year-old with the silhouette of an adolescent confesses that he “hated” his brother. Ludovic, “everyone’s favorite”, who “felt he was the boss of the house”, gave him a hard time from childhood. “We often quarreled. He was annoying.” Over the years, he saw his “bad company”. “I couldn’t do anything, I tried to get him back on the right path but he wouldn’t listen to me. It was too late,” he says.
Jealousy got involved: “At the parties, there were only ones for him. He was married, he was successful… He saved the Bertins’ honor. He had a great life, unlike mine. » He “hated” this little brother. “I wanted him to die but thanks to God, I learned to love him and forgive him” because he “had changed and matured in recent years”.
To unravel the Ludovic Bertin mystery, we will not have to count on the accused’s half-sister and mother either. Both called in sick, presenting a medical certificate to justify their absences. “Why does your mother not want to come and testify,” asks Valérie Blain. ” I don’t know. I haven’t seen her in a while. It’s probably difficult for her. And then, she is of a certain age,” the eldest tries to justify. Exactly 63 years old and not 90 years old, the president corrects.
“I never liked him, I still hate him today”
She too almost was absent from the debates, claiming a honeymoon in Dubai. But Dounia finally appeared before the Assize Court, apologizing beforehand. “It’s complicated for me to be in front of you,” asserts the former sister-in-law of the accused. And added: “As he was married to my sister, I am put in the family box of the culprit. But we are ashamed to be assimilated to Ludovic. » On the stand, the thirty-year-old expressed her anger: “I never loved him. If we didn’t accept him, it was not because of religion as he says, but because we very quickly understood his personality and his influence over my sister. He is manipulative, violent. I still hate him today. » In a firm tone, the person concerned drives the point home: “For me, he’s crazy. At the age of 25, he took the life of a young girl. I feel like I have to apologize to the family. I live 300 meters from them. I don’t want them to put a Ludovic label on my forehead. »
In a final salvo, the witness asks, this time, to address the jurors directly: “Make sure that he can never harm any woman again.” » Ludovic Bertin faces life imprisonment. The verdict is expected to be delivered around December 6.
