A 22-year-old man is suspected of having kidnapped and ill-treated a 19-year-old woman in Hérault, said Raphaël Balland, the public prosecutor of Béziers. She had been found unconscious by a mountain biker in an isolated area.
In hypothermia, the young woman, who weighed less than 40 kg and had a swollen face, had been hospitalized in an absolute state of emergency in Montpellier. She had come out of a coma on November 9. On December 27, the Béziers prosecutor's office opened a judicial investigation to try to identify the victim and establish the causes of his injuries.
Tied, gagged and beaten
The man is suspected of having ill-treated her, locked in a locked locker, tied, gagged, and regularly beaten, continues the magistrate. The young woman would have lived "in a state of permanent filth, deprived of food and care and even sometimes forced to eat cat feces. He would have forced her to pay her social benefits, especially to buy video games, "notes the prosecutor.
The state of health of the young woman worsening, the suspect is then suspected of having decided to extract the victim from the accommodation, "but not to drive him to a hospital, for fear of being reported. They then transported it by vehicle to abandon it, at night, at the place of its discovery by the cyclist the next day, "said the prosecutor.
Five people indicted
The suspect, as well as another man living in the apartment, suspected of having participated in the violence "to a lesser extent," said the prosecutor, were charged with "forcible confinement to facilitate acts of torture and of barbarism and extortion of the victim's means of payment ”. A 44-year-old woman and a 32-year-old man, suspected of having "been aware of this situation but without seeking to put an end to it", were charged with "voluntary abstention from preventing a crime". All four were placed in pre-trial detention.
Third man indicted for "willful abstention from preventing a crime or offense against the integrity of the person", was placed under judicial supervision
The victim is hospitalized in a rehabilitation center and his psychological state has still not allowed him to hear about his version of the facts, says Raphaël Balland.
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