• The trial of a 22-year-old man suspected of murder opens Monday before the Pontoise Assize Court. 

  • He is suspected of having killed a 55-year-old man he met on a gay dating site.

  • If he admits the facts, he denies the premeditation.

This January 22, 2018, the police officers of Jouy-le-Moutier, in the Val-d'Oise, have not yet passed the door of the pavilion of Michel S., 55 years old, that, already, traces of blood portend the worst. Inside, they discover the victim, an uneventful employee in a Parisian notarial office, his face swollen, numerous wounds on his body, lying in the living room. The walls of the entrance and the kitchen, stained with blood, bear witness to the violence of the assault. From this Monday and for a week, a 22-year-old man is tried for murder in front of the Pontoise assizes, suspected of having set a trap for the victim, homosexual.

If the investigators of the criminal brigade of Versailles noted the disappearance of the car of Michel S., which could suggest a burglary having gone wrong, they also established that the latter had an appointment, the day before, with a man met. on a gay dating site.

Quickly identified and arrested three days later, the suspect, Mohamed E. almost bluntly admitted the murder while denying having premeditated his act.

According to his account, the victim was insistent despite his refusal to have sex, even preventing him from leaving the lodge.

A violent fight then ensued, during which he grabbed a knife and stabbed it.

A rapprochement with two assaults

But his version of the facts struggles to convince investigators. The description he delivers of the victim contrasts radically with that made by his relatives, a non-violent and respectful man. Investigators are also wondering about the latest Google searches for the respondent. Why, two days before the murder, did he inquire about a "knife sharpening machine"? What about those text messages sent to one of his contacts before their first date, at the end of December: “there, is there a guy, I gave him an appointment? "," If there is a guy there? "

A comparison is made with two other assaults, committed a few weeks earlier in the same area: two men beaten up, stabbed for one of them, and robbed while on their way to a meeting with a suitor. met on this same dating site.

Instead, a masked trio had shown up.

Without being formal, the two victims believe that Mohamed E. was the bearer of the knife.

In police custody, one of his alleged accomplices partially admitted the facts, claiming that these ambushes were aimed at robbing men.

The trial of this part of the case has not yet taken place.

Life imprisonment

The assassination of Michel S. - perpetrated this time by a single man - does it follow the same motives?

Without going into the details of the case, his lawyer Me Aloïs Blin, promises during the trial a "defense of explanation".

“There is no debate on who killed Michel S,” he explains.

The hearings will nonetheless be very largely devoted to the psychiatric profile of the accused who claims to hear voices.

One of two colleges of psychiatrists that examined him recognized a "disturbance in his discernment."

One of them evokes "a neurotic context structured by the conflict dynamic of the homosexual problem".

"The question of his sexual identity would have caused an intense discomfort to which he would have reacted by turning his aggressiveness towards others", adds a psychologist.

He faces life imprisonment.

World

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Miscellaneous

Homophobic aggression in Corsica: Two minors indicted for the attack on a homosexual couple

  • Paris

  • Justice

  • Assassination

  • Pontoise

  • Homophobia

  • Trial