The local gendarmerie describes the scene as “an extreme outbreak of violence”. A 21-year-old young man was indicted and imprisoned this Friday for the murder in Doubs of a 59-year-old cook because of his homosexuality, announced the Besançon prosecutor.
He was indicted for “aggravated intentional homicide, because it was committed because of the sexual orientation of the victim,” announced prosecutor Étienne Manteaux at a press conference. He faces life imprisonment.
Thursday shortly after midnight, the gendarmes were warned by witnesses that a man on the ground was being beaten in Morteau, a town near the Swiss border. Quickly on site with emergency services, they noted the death of the 59-year-old victim.
The police then spotted an individual nearby whose shoes were stained with blood. This 21-year-old man admits to having kicked the victim, particularly in the head, then to having returned home to change and take off his blood-stained pants, before returning to the scene. The two men had spent part of the evening drinking in a bar. According to witnesses, the cook had made advances towards the young man.
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.
He admitted during his hearings that “it was the sexual propositions that were made that made him angry,” said Mr. Manteaux. “The victim's mother, his only family, described her son as never having had a stable emotional relationship. She is overwhelmed,” he confided.
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.
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