A 44-year-old man, released from prison since June 2, was charged by an La Rochelle investigating judge for the murder of his ex-girlfriend and placed in pre-trial detention. The man, a Macedonian national, is suspected of having killed his former partner, Barbara Besey, 47, after a meeting scheduled for Sunday to collect keys.
In police custody, the forties admitted that "he had lost all control and had hit his former partner with a hammer before strangling him with his belt". The murder took place in the apartment of Périgny (Charente-Maritime) that the couple had occupied during their relationship of almost four years, detailed the attorney of the Republic of La Rochelle Laurent Zuchowicz in a press release.
"The victim had announced to him that she was ending their relationship"
The two forties had "agreed to an appointment" so that she could pick up the keys, but the woman no longer giving any news, her "worrying disappearance" had been reported the following day at the La Rochelle police station. Her lifeless body was discovered in the afternoon of Monday in the former marriage apartment. Shortly after, the ex-companion was arrested, drunk, in his car parked in the parking lot of the police station.
"The victim had announced to him that she was ending their relationship (...) and that she had just met another person, but she still went to look for him in prison," according to the prosecutor. "Living very badly this situation", the man went on June 4 to the new companion, and was "vehement", he said again.
Twenty-nine femicides suspected since the start of the year
Convicted 19 times between 2002 and 2019, mainly for traffic offenses but also for aggravated violence, the man had just served three convictions for traffic offenses, for a total of eight months in prison, at the Poitiers-Vivonne prison center. Having been granted “parole one month before” his sentence ended, he left the institution on June 2.
At the end of his hearings, the suspect, who was not involved in the alcohol and narcotic femicide, was granted parole, was presented Wednesday to an investigating judge who l 'indicted for "murder by ex-partner".
Our file on feminicides
AFP has identified 29 suspected feminicides since the start of the year. In 2019 according to an AFP count, at least 126 women were killed by their partner or ex, i.e. a woman every three days on average.
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