It was a very “dejected” young man that Me Pierre-Alexis Blevin met. Carried away by a media whirlwind that has completely overwhelmed him, his client finds himself at the heart of a procedure that he would never have imagined experiencing. Accused of having picked up a 13-year-old girl in his town of Pabu (Côtes-d’Armor) then of having hidden her in his apartment in a young workers’ home in Coutances (Manche), Adrien was indicted for minor subtraction. But not only that. Aged 21, the young man from Ille-et-Vilaine is also indicted for rape.
If he claims a “consensual” relationship with young Morgane, the accused comes up against French law. At 13, the adolescent cannot be judged to consent. In the eyes of the law adopted in 2021, the age gap of more than five years makes him suspect of a crime that his lawyer seeks at all costs to rule out. “They are two carefree kids, unaware of what they have done. My client is not a bad kid. He is very far from the image of the ugly kidnapper that has been stuck to him. He is a particularly immature 21-year-old boy,” defends Me Pierre Alexis Blevin.
The lawyer from the Saint-Brieuc bar did not have much time to get to know his client. But according to him, the young man was never aware of the seriousness of the facts with which he could be accused. However, on November 25, he went to Pabu to look for Morgane, with whom he had been chatting for three months on Snapchat.
“He wanted to help her and that’s all”
The teenager, victim of harassment and increasingly addicted to social networks, asked him to come help her, after a violent argument with her parents and friends. “There was no kidnapping, no kidnapping. He wanted to help her, he came to get her and that’s it.” The lawyer does not wish to discuss the fifteen days when the teenager remained in the home’s bedroom with only a computer connected to the Internet for company. “They knew what they were doing. But I cannot talk about it,” explains the council, subject to the secrecy of the investigation.
Indicted for rape, Adrien was placed in pre-trial detention by the liberty and detention judge. His lawyer appealed the decision, so that he could benefit from a simple judicial review allowing him to return to his job in a jewelry store. “My client does not really feel guilty. He doesn’t feel like he hurt anyone. On the contrary, there was a certain attachment to this relationship.” The Saint-Brieuc public prosecutor said that the victim “was in good health” but that she was receiving significant psychological support.
Already involved in similar events
Whoever is presented as the aggressor should follow the same treatment. Claiming to be a victim of harassment in his youth, Adrien had already attempted suicide in the past. For several years, he had created a new life for himself by making virtual friends on social networks. “False friends” as he himself explained to investigators. People with whom he interacted regularly and whom he tried to help.
Find our file on disappearances
In April, he had already gone to the outskirts of a college in Oise to pick up a 14-year-old girl who had told him about her discomfort and who had asked him for help. Adrien was to be judged on Wednesday December 11 by the Beauvais court for these acts of abduction of a minor. Absent because in police custody, he will only be judged later in this case, which has taken an unexpected media turn since Morgane’s disappearance.
