At the Assize Court of Isère,
“As a joke, I asked him if it wasn't him who did it. » Learning that Victorine Dartois had been killed “downstairs” from her best friend Ludovic Bertin, Maxime* saw fit to taunt him about it. “We were talking on FaceTime, he immediately hung up. » Fifteen minutes later, the person showed up at his door, confessing: “I was shocked,” Maxime continues. He told me, “It’s me. I’m the one who killed her.” He explained to me that he had wanted to rape her, but that, out of an impulse of conscience, he had not done it. Afterwards, he couldn't let her go, and he strangled her.”
Heard Monday morning at the opening of the second week of Ludovic Bertin's trial, the young man firmly maintains his statements, the same for four years. “I never lied, it’s too serious a story for that. And I say it with confidence because I understood that my word was called into question,” he asserts in the direction of the defense.
“This denunciation cost me, but it was obligatory”
Right at the helm, the thirty-year-old precisely unfolds the thread of the events of September 2020 which led to the death of 18-year-old Victorine, whose body was found in a stream in Villefontaine. On the day of his confession, Ludovic Bertin was “seized with remorse, he wanted to surrender,” he assures. But the days passed and the accused never pushed the door of the gendarmerie. “I told him 'go and turn yourself in', but I understood that he was no longer with that in mind. I had no other choice but to denounce him,” Maxime punctuates. He could no longer sleep and could no longer “keep it all together”. But the decision was painful to make: “Ludovic, I called him ‘my brother’”. The boy therefore took advice from two other friends and was taken to investigators.
“The act of denunciation cost me, but it was obligatory. I did it for me, for the Dartois family but also for him indirectly,” he emphasizes. Which is not to the taste of the accused. Called to stand up to react, Ludovic Bertin lets his rage burst out. The polite tone used during the first days of the trial quickly turned aggressive. “He has hatred for me. Less than ten seconds ago, he gave me a killer look,” he says, glaring at his former best friend in a fit of fury. “Ohs” of indignation rose from the back of the room. “Mr. Bertin, 'killer look' is a bit unwelcome,” Valérie Blain, the president of the court, quickly reframes it.
“He’s lying,” Ludovic Bertin gets carried away
But the accused loses his composure and rails against the witness: “He’s lying. He adapts his speech to everything he has seen in the media. » “No, my speech has not changed since his detention but my perception of things has,” Maxime responds calmly. And to drive the point home: “I was able to take a step back from the affair and see him as something other than my best friend. » “He knows how to speak well to make me look like a rapist. His goal is for me not to go out. He provokes me, he plays smart,” Ludovic Bertin belches. The president tells him to calm down. “Can I finish my sentence?” », he loses his temper one last time.
“Do you have anything else to say?” », This time the court asks the witness. “I will remain on guard all my life, absolutely all my life because I am wary of what he (Bertin) might want to do. » The verdict is expected on December 6. The accused faces life imprisonment.
* The first name has been changed
