This is a rare trial which opens this Monday, December 2 at 2 p.m. before the Marne Assize Court : for three days, Jean-Paul Isaki, 30, was tried in Reims for having raped and killed Paul, 50, because he dressed as a woman in his home on Avenue de Laon. Man is like this accused of murder and aggravated rape by the circumstance that they were committed because of the sexual orientation or gender identity of the victim.
On April 7, 2021, called around 10:45 p.m. for a fire, the Marne firefighters intervened at the victim's home on Avenue de Laon and quickly managed to extinguish the flames. At the entrance to the completely destroyed bathroom, emergency services found the body of a man completely naked and with wounds on his neck. The accused is suspected of having raped and stabbed the victim 14 times with scissors, before setting fire to her clothes and at the same time to his apartment. At the time, a few days after the incident, the public prosecutor of Reims speaks of a “homophobic crime” or transphobic crime. Because the victim Paul, aged 50, dressed in women's clothes at home, and was called Paula in private and by those close to him.
The accused found thanks to the victim's bank card
When he is heard for the first time by the investigators, the accused who lives in Châlons-en-Champagne talks about money and says he does not know the victim. This is also thanks to the multiple purchases made with the victim's bank card that the accused was found by the police several days after the incident. And it was only during a third hearing that Jean-Paul Isaki admitted to having raped the victim before stabbing her with scissors, cutting the victim's clothes, setting them on fire and finally fleeing with the victim's credit card.
The accused assured at the time that he did not frequent or do research on homosexual or transsexual dating sites. However, the investigation was able to establish that Jean-Paul Isaki's phone did indeed contain photos of a sexual nature of heterosexual, homosexual and transgender people. And it was established thanks to the victim's relatives that Paula frequented this type of dating sites with a female pseudonym.
The accused had already been indicted for attempted homophobic or transphobic murder
A few days after the tragedy, a gathering took place at Place Saint-Thomas in Reims not far from the victim's home, at the call of the Reims association Exaequo, to denounce violence against LGBT people, bringing together around a hundred people. If the victim had not taken steps to change her gender identity, Paul was well known under the first name Paula in the privacy of her apartment but also to her close friends and her niece.
For their part, the members of the victim's family who live in Perpignan, denounced the inaction of justice to avoid this transphobic murder. Because the accused had already been indicted and placed under judicial supervision in Evry on November 5, 2019, for attempted murder due to sexual orientation or gender identity for facts dating from July 2017. But he was not tried in this case.
The trial which opens this Monday before the Marne Assize Court is expected to last three days. The accused is on trial for murder and aggravated rape as well as destruction of property of others, theft and fraud.
