“Thomas’ parents live a nightmare every day that never ends”

One year after the murder of Thomas Perotto, 16, stabbed during a ball in Crépol in Drôme, while the investigation continues, Maître Alexandre Farelly, the lawyer for Thomas’ family, testifies to the pain and the dignity of the young man’s parents.

November 19, 2024: it will be exactly one year since Thomas Perotto, a 16-year-old teenager, lost his life, fatally stabbed during a ball in Crépol, near Romans-sur-Isère in the Drôme. In his memory, this Sunday, November 17a very discreet ceremony took place in the village in the presence of Thomas’ parents. A tribute to the child of the country materialized by a stele, a block of blond limestone, inlaid with a double metal heart, and a plaque engraved with these simple words: “in memory of Thomas and in support of all those injured at the ball“.

Maître Alexandre Farelly, lawyer at the Grenoble bar, is the lawyer for Thomas’ family. Today he gives a modest testimony by evoking the young man’s parents and loved ones.

How is Thomas’ family today?

Thomas’ parents live a nightmare every day that never ends. I could picture to you the evening, when sleep does not come, and they hope to be able to dream of their son, to find him. Or their son’s step on the stairs when he came down from his room, the step they wait for every morning. There are many other things I could try to describe to you but if I did so, I would not be up to this family. And I wouldn’t live up to who Thomas was.

This family, when you arrive at their house, they open their door to you, they take you in their arms, they ask you how you are, how your loved ones are doing, they worry, they have affection for you. They are caring while you see this suffering, this absence, this lack in their eyes. But above all there is their dignity, there is their strength.

When you leave them, you are devastated because you wonder how they do it. You wonder how they are holding up in this storm and you can’t find the answer. You just stand there bowing down to who they are and the strength they have.

In the minds of Thomas’ parents, their son died a few minutes ago. Faced with such grief, the notion of time does not work.

Maître Alexandre Farelly, lawyer for the Perotto family

Doesn’t the passage of time ease their pain?

To understand them, I think you have to have been confronted with grief, extremely violent grief. And therefore, you say to yourself, when you know this, when you have experienced it, that the notion of time no longer comes into play. It doesn’t work like that. In their minds, Thomas died a few minutes ago. In their minds, Thomas dies several times a day. Time is not a factor in the equation, at least not at this stage and not until the trial.

When you’re with them… Strength, dignity, courage, humanity, that’s what jumps out at you and grabs you by the guts. There is anger, but it would be betraying them to talk to you about this anger now. In contact with them, when you leave them, it’s not the anger that stays in your mind.

What do they expect today from education, from justice?

They expect everything to be done as best as possible. They expect quality instruction, quality investigations. They are aware that the magistrates seized do their duty, that all investigators seized by letter rogatory do their duty. They know it will take time, they accept it. Because they placed their trust in the judicial authority a year ago and so far this trust has not been betrayed. And we hope that this trust will be respected until the day the Assize Court decides and sentences.

Do you have any idea when this trial will take place?

It will last a long time, we are not talking about weeks, we are talking about several months obviously. I cannot announce a deadline and I do not want to. We want things done the right way.

Do they know that this is a complicated investigation and that we may never know who stabbed their son?

Trust takes precedence over all that. There will be a decision, convictions, that’s how they understand things at this stage.

Are they sufficiently supported and accompanied?

You know, Crépol is a village, there is the rugby club, the solidarity and this is undoubtedly also what gives them the strength that I mentioned earlier. They have this strength within them, they have it thanks to Thomas, thanks to the love they feel for Thomas and which will never leave them. But they also have it thanks to all the people around them: neighbors, friends and all those who live in this part of the Drôme department..

One year after Thomas’ murder, 14 people, including three minors, were indicted for “intentional homicide and attempted intentional homicide by an organized gang. All the accused, eight of whom are in pre-trial detention, deny their responsibility. The identity of the person who stabbed young Thomas to death remains a mystery.