“It’s been a normal day so far.”repeats Ludovic Bertin several times this Wednesday in front of the Isère assizes, where he is tried for the murder of Victorine Dartois. For three hours, everyone focused on the accused this Wednesday. The sequence began with his story, 40 minutes during which he recounted his day of September 26, 2020. He first recounts the work, the calls from several friends to see each other. But that day was also a day when he took cocaine. This pushes him to go jogging near the Stade de la Prairie “to evacuate”. “It’s not there that I’m going to commit these atrocities, it’s downstairs from my house” he argues. But then comes this jostling with Victorine, the insults from the young woman, according to him. “That’s where everything went wrong,” repeats Ludovic Bertin.“I couldn’t go back.” he insists. At the time of the murder, “I was even more connected to reality, it’s crazy!” he repeats over and over, more than a dozen times.
“I tell myself it’s all real, it’s not a dream” – The accused
In the box, he mimes his actions when he strangled the young woman. A first, then a second time. How he dragged her into the river. The next day he wakes up. His wife tells him about the disappearance. “I tell myself, this is all real, it’s not a dream.” He cries for a few moments before resuming his story. Then come the questions from the president, the general advocate, the lawyers, the civil parties. Everyone points out the inconsistencies of Ludovic Bertin, relying in particular on the timing of the route of Victorine and the accused. Despite all these overwhelming elements and despite the terrible testimony of his former best friendMonday, he once again maintained his version of the facts.
A witness still haunted, four years later
By answering his lawyer's questions, Ludovic Bertin then assures that he wants “ask for forgiveness”but he shows little emotion, less in any case than when he expresses his concern for his own son and his intention to commit suicide, the evening he killed Victorine.
This Wednesday was also marked by the regrets of a witness: the one who was the last, apart from the accused, to see Victorine alive. This man was walking his dog that evening, on the same route as Victorine Dartois. He doesn't live far away and walks his dog every day in the Stade de la Prairie area. That evening, he saw her, then lost sight of her while taking a break in his walk. The accused says he saw this walker when he was with Victorine, below the path, but this gentleman heard nothing and saw nothing and it haunts him. “It’s been hurting for four years” he says, “four years I've been thinking: could I have done something?”
On Thursday, it will be the turn of the psychologist expert to be heard in the morning, then the pleadings of the civil parties will begin, followed by the requisitions and then the defense pleadings.
