Dany Leprince, who wishes to obtain the annulment of his conviction for the murders of his brother, his sister-in-law and two of his nieces in 1994, obtained a first victory on Thursday: his request was transmitted to the Court of Revision.
The investigating committee relied on two series of new or unknown facts to justify the admissibility of this request for review, filed in spring 2021, the president indicated during a public hearing.
Dany Leprince, moved, with moist eyes, hugged his loved ones when the decision was announced. “The fight is not over,” he told the press. “I always believed in it”, but “you have to remain careful”, added the man, now 67 years old.
For thirty years, he has proclaimed his innocence.
On September 4, 1994, his brother Christian Leprince, his wife and two of their daughters, Audrey, 7 years old, and Sandra, 10 years old, were found massacred with knives in their house in Thorigné-sur-Dué (Sarthe). . Solène, 2 years old, was the only survivor.
Accused by his wife Martine Compain – from whom he has since divorced – and his eldest daughter Célia, Dany Leprince confessed while in police custody to having killed his younger brother, without mentioning the three other victims.
He quickly recanted, claiming that his confession had been extorted by investigators.
The man who was nicknamed “the butcher of Sarthe” was sentenced to life imprisonment with 22 years of security in 1997 for this quadruple murder by the Assize Court.
The investigating committee relied on Célia’s statements, which, in view of a restoration carried out in 2023 on the premises, proved to be incompatible with the topography of the premises.
The judges also raised the credibility given at the time to the words of Solène, who was only 2 years old.
Considering that these two sets of facts were sufficient to declare Dany Leprince’s request admissible, the commission did not examine the other elements raised by the defense, the president specified.
– “Great victory” –
“It is a great victory which opens the way to the recognition of the innocence of Dany Leprince”, reacted his lawyer, Me Olivier Morice, who defends him with Me Missiva Chermak-Felonneau.
-The file will therefore be sent to the president of the Court of Revision. After examining the file, within a year to a year and a half, if he considers the request well-founded, he will annul the conviction and order a new trial. Or the Court of Review will reject the request.
This is the second time that Dany Leprince has taken the matter to court to obtain his innocence.
After the rejection of his cassation appeal in 1999 – the possibility of appealing a conviction by an assize court has only been possible in France since 2000 – he filed a first request for review in 2006.
But in 2011 the Court of Review refused to hold a new trial.
In a 200-page brief, in support of this request, his lawyers listed around twenty “new facts and elements unknown to the trial court likely to establish his innocence or to give rise to doubt about his guilt”.
Among these elements are notably the role of Martine Compain on the evening of the events, her personality and her “multiple reversals”.
In a judicial investigation opened in 2014 in Le Mans, after a complaint from the father of the Leprince sons for murder and complicity, Martine Compain was placed under the more favorable status of witness assisted by the investigating judge.
But the prosecution is calling for his indictment. The hearing at the investigating chamber of the Angers Court of Appeal has not yet been scheduled.
The defense also relies on a letter sent in April 2024 to the investigating committee by Solène, now 32 years old, revealing that she had “serious doubts as to the guilt” of her uncle, “in view of the numerous inconsistencies” of the file. She said she “fervently hopes that a new trial can take place to seek the truth.”
After 17 years of detention, Dany Leprince obtained conditional release in 2012 and has no longer been under judicial supervision since 2021.
Reviews of criminal convictions remain rare in France: only around ten requests have been successful since 1945 in cases of murder or rape.
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