Logan Peyrebesse was 13 years old. “He was the joy of living. When this sad day arrived, I couldn’t cry,” says his grandmother. “Nine and a half years since the tragedy happened and I still talk about it in the present tense […]. I learned of my son’s death on the phone one Saturday. I can only see his body on Thursdays,” laments his mother.
Logan was a smiling, athletic, undoubtedly intrepid child. Are you still serious when you’re 13? On June 20, 2015 in Angoulême, he went to the swimming pool by bike with friends. On the road, the group stops in front of the Montaigne cellars. He enters this industrial wasteland of more than four hectares in the middle of the city, whose disused hangars are the playground for many young people, graffiti artists and skateboarders. Logan wants to take a selfie and climbs onto a roof, more than 8 meters above the ground. A corrugated fiber cement sheet gives way. The teenager dies in the fall.
What cause(s)?
The interior of an abandoned hangar at the Montaigne cellars in Angoulême. The teenager had climbed onto a roof. He had fallen 8.63 m.
Thomas Lebreuvaud / Archives SO
Was the boy’s imprudence the only cause of the tragedy? No, replied the Investigation Chamber of the Bordeaux Court of Appeal and the Court of Cassation, at the end of a judicial marathon punctuated by a dismissal in 2015 and an order dismissing the case in 2017. Almost ten years after the events, ten years of impossible mourning, Malvina Peyrebesse hopes to turn the page. This Tuesday, January 14, 2025, a trial was held before the Angoulême criminal court.
Juan-Ignacio Arzoz Erreca, 67 years old, the Spanish owner of the industrial wasteland, and Bruno Vidalinc, 56 years old, real estate developer linked to his friend Juan-Ignacio by a promise of sale, were responsible for manslaughter “by clumsiness, imprudence, inattention, negligence or breach of an obligation of caution and safety imposed by law or regulation.”
“Whether your plans come to fruition or not, you had to secure or demolish! »
They are accused of not having blocked access to the interior of the Montaigne cellar hangars and of not having taken “any suitable measures to carry out their demolition or to ensure permanent and effective surveillance of the premises”. Furthermore, the instruction considers that the owner and the developer “had known for several years that these buildings presented a major danger, by regularly serving as a playground or adventure playground for young people who entered them”.
Céline Levain / SO Archives
June 2015, flowers on the fence of the Montaigne cellars in Angoulême, in tribute to Logan, who died tragically on the site.
False, replied Bruno Vidalinc at the hearing. “The premises were regularly checked. There was nothing dangerous inside,” assured the developer, who presided over all the development projects for the site purchased for 2.3 million euros in 2006. Cinema, shops, hotel, thalassotherapy, spa: none were successful. The fault is the changes in the municipal political majority, lamented the businessman. “Whether your plans come to fruition or not, you had to secure or demolish! In 2011, you had a planning permit equivalent to a demolition permit,” underlined president Nathalie Billington. “Authorization does not mean obligation,” replied the defendants’ lawyers.
Certainly, a guard (in a hidden work situation) passed through the Montaigne cellars every week. He checked a fence, installed a new padlock, had large stones placed in front of this or that access. According to prosecutor Mathieu Auriol, these devices were ineffective; doors and windows would have had to be sealed or walled up. “The buildings open to all the winds tempted the devil,” he summarized, reproaching the “prolonged inaction” of MM. Arzoz and Vidalinc.
Fines required
Thomas Lebreuvaud / Archives SO
In February 2015, four months before the tragedy, an association of graffiti artists, K10, created a fresco at the Montaigne cellars. She even invited the press…
Me Lionel Béthune de Moro, counsel for the civil party, pointed out the “negligence” of the defendants but above all regretted their lack of empathy. “I would have liked a word of compassion in this court. I didn’t hear anything,” he said. Then the lawyer cited a letter from the deputy mayor for security and town planning. In this registered letter dated January 20, 2015, the elected official mentions the numerous intrusions, invites the owner to “close the buildings permanently” and emphasizes that he could be held liable.
According to Mr. Pierre-Olivier Ballade, defense lawyer, there would be no “administrative formal notice” here, no “decisive significance”, the municipality of Angoulême having not issued any danger order. According to him, the criminal offense is not characterized and acquittal is required. The court could not enter into the process of sentencing, as requested by the prosecution, by requesting a fine of 30,000 euros against each of the defendants but no prison sentence. The judgment under deliberation is expected on March 18.
