“It’s a first victory”greeted on franceinfo Thursday January 23 Olivier Morice, lawyer for Dany Leprince, who wishes to obtain the annulment of his conviction for a quadruple murder in Sarthe in 1994. The investigating committee decided to transmit, Thursday, its request to the court of review. Dany Leprince, who spent 17 years in prison, however remains “prudent”underlines his lawyer.
The decision was rendered in a public hearing at the Court of Cassation in Paris on Thursday. The file was therefore transmitted to the court of review which can reject the request or pronounce the annulment of the life imprisonment with 22 years of security, pronounced in 1997, for the murders of the brother of Dany Leprince, his sister-in-law and two of his nieces. If the conviction is overturned, the reviewing court will order a new trial.
“There were reassessments of the transports to the scene which were carried out, which established that, in particular, one of Dany Leprince’s accusers, her own daughter Célia, lied, and that what she described as acts committed by his father against his in-laws, was totally impossible.”
Me Olivier Morice, lawyer for Dany Leprinceon franceinfo
Dany Leprince, nicknamed the “butcher of Sarthe” at the time of his conviction, remains “cautious, because at the same time he absolutely wants to spare the institution”adds Olivier Morice. “For the institution to recognize that it made a mistake somewhere, it is necessary at the same time to show a certain modesty in the approach”supports his lawyer, recalling “that since 1945 there have only been twelve criminal procedures to have been revised.”
On September 4, 1994, 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, in 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, he partially confessed, before retracting. Since then, he has maintained his innocence.
-In April 2024, Solène, a survivor of the killing who is 32 years old today, wrote to the investigating commission, declaring that she had “serious doubts as to guilt” of his uncle, “in view of the numerous inconsistencies” of the file, and wish “longing for a new trial to seek the truth”.
The questioning of Célia’s testimony and Solène’s statement were sufficient to declare Dany Leprince’s request admissible, the other elements presented by the defense were not examined, explained the president of the investigating committee.
As for his ex-wife, Martine Compain, she has been the target of an investigation for “murder and complicity” since 2014 in Le Mans, after a complaint for “murder” and “complicity in murder” filed by the father of the Leprince sons. She was placed under the status of assisted witness, but the prosecution is calling for her to be indicted. During the hearing on December 12 before the investigating committee, the attorney general had also requested “to wait” the evolution of this ongoing legal case in Le Mans.
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), Dany Leprince filed a first request for review in 2006. But in 2011, the Court of Review refused to hold a new trial. In spring 2021, his defense filed a new request for review which was therefore transmitted on Thursday to the Court of Review.
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