After years of battle to have his innocence recognized, Dany Leprince will perhaps obtain a new trial. His request for review aimed at annulling his life sentence for the murders of his brother, his sister-in-law and two of his nieces in 1994 in Sarthe, was transmitted to the Court of Review, the investigating commission announced on Thursday .
The commission relied on two new or unknown facts, the statements of Dany Leprince’s eldest daughter, Célia, and the credibility given at the time to the comments of Solène, 2 years old and the only survivor of the killing, to motivate the admissibility of this request, indicated the president of this commission during a public hearing.
The file will therefore be sent to the president of the Court of Revision. After examining it, within a year to a year and a half, if he considers the request well-founded, he will declare the conviction annulled and order a new trial. Or the Court of Review will reject the request.
“The Butcher of Sarthe” moved to tears
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. 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, he confessed in part, before retracting. Since then, he has maintained his innocence. The man who was nicknamed “the butcher of Sarthe” was sentenced to life imprisonment with twenty-two 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 April 2023 on the premises, turned out to be incompatible with the topography of the premises.
-Célia “always claimed to have seen her father hit Christian Leprince while the two men were near the mailbox,” it is written in the judgment. But for the investigators, “it does not appear possible” for Célia “to have seen the facts described […]making the accusation against his father difficult to believe,” they note. “This testimony completely collapses,” concluded Dany Leprince’s lawyer, Olivier Morice, stressing that Célia was “one of the accusers, an essential witness for the prosecution.”
Twelve revisions of criminal trials in France in 80 years
Furthermore, Solène, 32 years old today, revealed in a letter in April 2024 to the investigating committee that she had “serious doubts as to the guilt” of her uncle, “given the numerous inconsistencies” in the file, and “fervently hoped that a new trial could take place to seek the truth”.
Considering that these two sets of facts were sufficient to declare Dany Leprince’s request admissible, the commission did not examine the other elements presented by the defense, said the president. The hearing at the investigating chamber of the Angers Court of Appeal has not yet been scheduled.
“It is a great victory which opens the way to the recognition of the innocence of Dany Leprince,” said Olivier Morice. “Since 1945, there are only twelve criminal cases to have been reviewed in our country, we hope that Dany Leprince will be the thirteenth,” concluded the lawyer.
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