“He destroyed me from the inside”, testifies the ex-wife of Ludovic Bertin

Ludovic Bertin’s ex-wife retraced ten years of relationship this Tuesday alongside the accused who appears before the Isère Assize Court for the murder of Victorine Dartois. She spoke of numerous episodes of physical violence before becoming uncomfortable when she saw his face again.

A youthful love transformed into repeated violence. Samia* retraced the ten years of relationship that united her with Ludovic Bertin. A love affair born between two 16 year old teenagers. “We said we would get married one day. It was our childhood dream”she remembers Tuesday, December 3. But when the wedding approaches, the childhood dream is already far away.

Claiming that the accused had cheated on her the day before, Samia refuses to sign the papers. “He was punching my legs. He went to get a cloth from the kitchen, put it on my face and poured water on it until I signed the paper. And I signed”describes Samia with difficulty, heard by videoconference from the judicial court in Vienne (Isère).

“In the room, I was afraid of passing out, of making eye contact [de Ludovic Bertin, NDLR]. I try to forget his face. I wouldn’t have been able to express myself.”justifies, nervous, the young woman of 29 years old, long black hair, golden pendant in the shape of a heart around her neck.

Samia lists numerous episodes of violence of which she claims to have been a victim from the moment they moved in together, at the age of 18. “Barely three months later, it was a disastershe summarizes. He started hitting me and it never stopped. This continued for 10 years. I was humiliated, he put me down all the time. I was in love, I thought he was going to change, but it was starting again.”

Among the notable episodes of violence, Samia recalls an evening in 2014 when she surprised Ludovic Bertin consulting a pornographic site. An argument breaks out. “He beat me. I tried to run away and he hit me with a broom, he poured water on me. I was running on all fours, he hit me fist in my teeth I couldn’t breathe I was crying so much.explains the young woman.

Discovering Samia’s face “a song”his brother attacked Ludovic Bertin, inflicting seven stab wounds on him. Samia then decides to go and live with her mother. She files a complaint against Ludovic Bertin before withdrawing it, then returns to live alongside her partner. The young woman’s family cuts off all contact with her, not approving of this relationship.

“It continued to get worse and worse. He knew I had no one to talk to about it, no one to protect me. I stayed and suffered through it all, until I decided to have a reason to live, so I wanted to have a child”continues the ex-wife of the accused. “From the moment (my son) was in my stomach, I knew true love and I knew that it was fear that I had towards (Ludovic Bertin), not love .”

He destroyed me from the inside. I am fighting and surviving for my child, but I am dead inside. It was all based on lies.

Samia

Ex-wife of Ludovic Bertin

The child was born in 2019 and the couple broke up. The young man continues to go to nightclubs and is away from home more and more often. “The day before I gave birth, he was cheating on meevokes Samia. He got the wrong person and sent me a photo of himself with a girl’s butt at 3 a.m. I was beside myself. He stabbed himself in the leg to beg me not to leave him. It traumatized me and that’s what triggered my labor.”

Despite everything, Samia and Ludovic Bertin continue their relationship. “I gave up. He didn’t come home often, I no longer calculated it. I didn’t care”sweeps the young woman. Until the evening of October 13, 2020, when two plainclothes gendarmes knocked on his door while the couple was on the verge of breaking up. “They told me that he had been arrested for murder. (…) I didn’t believe it until they took me to the gendarmerie and they told me that he confessed [le meurtre de Victorine Dartois, NDLR]. It wasn’t possible.”she said, incredulously.

During the investigation, Samia discovers the other side of her ex-husband. “He destroyed me from the inside. I fight and survive for my child, but I am dead inside. It was all based on lies”she sobbed. “I had a hard time understanding that it was him.” But when Vicky* files a complaint for rape against Ludovic Bertin, the young woman says “open your eyes”.

“I understood that it was him, that that was it. But I never defended him, I never protected him in this story”she assures. Because Samia opened up about this violence late during the investigation. “I told myself that I was still alive, so I had no right to place myself as a victim. I was ashamed, I had never talked about it. I was very afraid”she justifies.

But when the courtroom camera focuses on Ludovic Bertin’s lawyer, Me Arnaud Adélise, revealing the accused in the background, Samia screams. “She said she didn’t want to see him.”shouts his sister Dounia, rushing to his side. The president suspends the hearing for several minutes.

For me, his testimony was told under the influence of his sister Dounia, since she was there.

Ludovic Bertin

Accused of the murder of Victorine Dartois

“I didn’t feel good when I saw his face. I don’t want to see him, I’ll have nightmares. I didn’t control my emotions”Samia stammers when the proceedings resume, under the doubtful gaze of the defense lawyer. “For me, the sister was present in the room at the time of the testimony”estimates Me Adélise, while the president had ordered Dounia to leave the room before hearing the witness. The court ultimately rejected this hypothesis.

“Given the hostility, there’s no way I’m asking questions”concludes the defender before sitting down again, leaving the president to question Ludovic Bertin. “For me, his testimony was said under the influence of his sister Dounia, since she was there”he responds, qualifying his account of the violence as “lies”in an echo of astonishment in the room.

In his first statements, the accused spoke of mutual violence between the couple. “I wasn’t a bully who beat her.”he defended himself. Ludovic Bertin will speak again this Wednesday morning to explain the murder of Victorine Dartois for which he is accused. A murder that he admitted to from the start of the investigation, however denying the attempted rape of the young woman for which he is also being tried.

* assumed first names.