Doubs. “An outburst of violence”: a man imprisoned after a homophobic murder

Thursday, shortly after midnight, residents of Morteau (Doubs) heard noises in a street in their town: a man on the ground was being beaten. Quickly on site with emergency services, the gendarmes noted the death of the victim, a 59-year-old cook.

Nearby, an individual whose shoes were stained with blood was spotted by the police. This 21-year-old man admits to having kicked the victim, particularly in the head, then to having returned home to change and remove his blood-stained pants, before returning to the scene.

An attack filmed

Investigators from the Pontarlier research brigade found three videos on the suspect’s phone that he himself filmed during the attack, before sending them to acquaintances: “in the first scene the victim is sitting, the bloody face; on the second the victim is lying on the ground, still making sounds; on the third, it no longer emits any sound,” confided the prosecutor. The author comments on his action on the videos, before insulting the man on the ground.

The victim and the attacker had spent part of the evening drinking in a bar. According to witnesses, the cook had made advances towards the young man. The suspect admitted during his hearings that “it was the sexual propositions that were made that made him angry,” said Étienne Manteaux, Besançon prosecutor.

Life imprisonment incurred

The young man was incarcerated on Friday, indicted for “aggravated intentional homicide, because it was committed because of the sexual orientation of the victim,” announced the prosecutor. He faces life imprisonment.

“The victim’s mother, his only family, described her son as never having had a stable emotional relationship. She is overwhelmed,” confided the magistrate. The videos show “unbearable” images, “an extreme outburst of violence, of blows”, according to Damien Mathieu, second in command of the Doubs gendarmerie group.

The suspect had consumed alcohol and cannabis at the time of the incident. Already convicted of armed violence, he was to be tried for other acts of violence in November.