More than three years after murder of Stephanie di Vincenzo22 years old, in the middle of the street in Hayange, the time for the trial has come. The victim’s spouse, 26 years old today, is on trial from this Tuesday, December 10, for having killed his partner and mother of their little daughter, with around ten stab wounds, on the night of December 23 to 24 May 2021. The affair caused great emotion at the time: it took place in the middle of the street, in front of the police station. And this less than three weeks after the feminicide of Chahinezburned alive in front of her home by her ex-husband, in Mérignac in Gironde. These two cases became emblematic of the difficulties in the fight against violence against womenand this despite the Grenelle on domestic violence in 2019.
Many witnesses
It all started with an argument at the couple’s home, on the evening of May 23, 2021. He blamed his partner for having an affair with another man. The couple had been struggling for several months. That evening, around midnight, several neighbors saw Stephanie falling out of her apartment window from the first floor of rue Poincaré: even today, we do not know if the young woman tried to escape by climbing over the railing, or if she was deliberately thrown out of the window.
As she runs towards the nearby police station – which is closed at night – her partner catches up with her and stabs her eleven times in the neck and chest. He screams horrors, kicks him again, spits on him. Stéphanie dies a few moments later, under the eyes of their daughteraged four.
To passers-by who try to intervene and help the victimthe murderer once again launches insults and threats, before fleeing by car. He will be arrested the next dayat the home of a woman of his acquaintance, aged 51 today, who is also being prosecuted before the Assize Court for having harbored the accused while he was wanted for murder.
Mission d’inspection
In addition to the judicial investigation, a inspection mission was quickly carried outjointly by the administration and justiceto find out if the murder of Stéphanie di Vincenzo could have been caused by failures in the criminal and socio-judicial monitoring of the couple.
We then learned that during the three years preceding the murder, the police had intervened around ten times at the couple’s home for arguments. Stéphanie di Vincenzo had filed a handrail in January 2020for verbal violence, then a complaint in Novemberfor death threats and repeated malicious calls. Complaint which was still being processed at the time of the murder, and which had not been transmitted to the prosecution.
However, other signals suggested, according to the report, that the situation did not present a serious and imminent danger. The victim had never grasped the outstretched hands that social services offered her. Stéphanie Di Vincenzo varied in her comments, sometimes mentioning but denying in others any physical violence by her companion against her person.
In February 2021, while her partner was incarcerated for traffic offenses, a visiting room incident broke out. But three months later, while the magistrates ignored this incident, they ordered a modified sentence with an electronic bracelet, at the home of Stéphanie, who had given her agreement in January, before the prison incident. We are ten days before the murder.
If the inspectors of this mission have concluded that there was no professional misconductthey still had highlighted the lack of resources and advocated better coordination of all services, to identify “weak signals” of domestic violence within a couple.
The accused faces life imprisonment. The verdict is expected this Friday.
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