At the Assize Court of Isère,
What were the motivations of Ludovic Bertin, this evening of September 26, 2020 when he crossed paths with Victorine Dartois? If the accused, on trial until the end of the week for the murder of the student in 2020, persists in saying that he had left home for a jog and that he accidentally bumped into the young woman – who would have insulted him – no witness believes it. Especially his former friends, convinced that he “had gone out to look for prey”.
“He was fat, bloated, he never ran,” recalls Amine*. Imagining the accused taking short strides leaves him doubtful, to say the least. “It was a pretext,” he says. You don’t go jogging when you’ve been drinking alcohol and doing coke. » Yvan*, trembling at the helm, is just as skeptical. Bertin had stopped by his house a few hours before to drink “a beer and a half” and snort a rail of cocaine.
“In his brain, things are not going well”
“Have you often seen him jogging? », questions Valérie Blain, the president of the court. “No, not at all,” he attests, shaking his legs nervously. He makes it appear that he acted under the influence of alcohol and drugs but he consumed as much as me. In his brain, things are not going well. » “Was he high when he left your house?” » Here again, the witness is categorical: “No, not at all. He was calm. To me, he knew what he was doing.”
Called to testify this Tuesday, gendarmerie officer Stéphanie Le Maout, expert in behavioral sciences, is also categorical. “The accused’s act was motivated by sexual intent,” she asserts. No doubt about it. The presence of a “naked or semi-naked” victim is one of his six “clues for classifying a murder as a sexual murder.” And during his custody in front of the gendarmes, Ludovic Bertin was really bothered to justify the fact that Victorine’s body was no longer wearing pants.
“Fear of losing the esteem” of others
“He said at that moment, ‘I see where you’re coming from, but I’m not going to come across as a rapist,’” says the expert. “Very obsessed by the image that he could project of himself”, and by “fear of losing the esteem” of others and of himself, the accused was “not capable of recognizing the real reasons for his taking action,” the gendarme further underlines. However, she specifies, she does not know if the student was raped or if Ludovic Bertin tried to do it, before changing his mind.
“Is strangulation common in a murder with a sexual connotation? », inquires the president of the court. “Yes, the victim is often strangled or suffocated,” replies the expert, thus completing her testimony. Ludovic Bertin will be heard on the facts on Wednesday morning. He risks life imprisonment.
