It is the end of a judicial marathon. Francis Heaulme is definitively sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of two children in Montigny-lès-Metz in 1986, after his appeal was dismissed on Wednesday by the Court of Cassation. The highest French judicial court put an end to a case punctuated by six trials, by validating the verdict of the Versailles Court of Appeal, pronounced in December 2018, against the serial killer, now aged 61 years old.
On September 28, 1986, Cyril Beining and Alexandre Beckrich, eight, had been found dead with their heads smashed along a railway line in Montigny-lès-Metz, on the outskirts of Metz. The suspicions were first focused on a teenager, Patrick Dils, sentenced to life in 1989 before being acquitted, then released in 2002 following the review of his trial.
#Rediff Patrick Dils: "They robbed me fifteen years of my life, I think I gave" https://t.co/G9tVFqtGgs pic.twitter.com/UkK5R1jRvl
- 20 Minutes (@ 20Minutes) October 13, 2017After other reversals, the Assize Court of the Moselle, in May 2017, found guilty of these crimes Francis Heaulme, already twice sentenced to life imprisonment for nine other murders.
The latter, who had appealed, admitted to having passed twice along the railway on the day of the facts, but always denied having killed the two children.
Towards a seizure of the ECHR?
"Obviously, it is a disappointment," reacted Wednesday with the lawyer of Francis Heaulme, Me Liliane Glock. She indicated that she was going to speak with her client who "awaited" this decision from her prison in Ensisheim, in Alsace. The lawyer indicated reflecting on the advisability of seizing the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
"It is an end point that feels good morally, even if Chantal Beining is no longer there to hear it," commented Dominique Boh-Petit, lawyer for the mother of Cyril Beining, who died in October 2019 of a cancer at age 75. It was Chantal Beining who, in 2007, appealed the dismissal pronounced for the benefit of Francis Heaulme, paving the way for a trial.
Families of victims do not reach the same conclusions
The families of the victims have gone through more than three decades of procedure without reaching the same conclusions. "This is a case that is definitely closing but that leaves us with a bitter taste," said Dominique Rondu, lawyer for the Beckrich family. The latter "was not convinced, during the trial of Versailles like that of Metz, of the guilt of Francis Heaulme".
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- Montigny lès-Metz
- Murder
- Francis Heaulme
- Justice