The media rush of the Lelandais affair before the judges

A place in memory of Maëlys, in Pont-de-Beauvoisin on February 15, 2018, a town where the girl had disappeared.

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Rather accustomed to analyzing the profile of the accused on TV sets, the expert Pascal Neveu this time passed on the wrong side of the bar before a court of law.

He took the opportunity to engage in a real mea culpa on his methods and the media frenzy during major criminal cases.

“Maybe we let go a little too much.

We talk, we talk, maybe too much ”: the regular speaker on the NRJ12 channel, had to respond on Tuesday to defamation against Nordahl Lelandais, the main suspect in the Maëlys affair.

Too fast an analysis

Presenting himself as a psychoanalyst at the bar of the sixth chamber of the press of the judicial tribunal of Lyon, Pascal Neveu has appeared for three years in the program

 of Jean-Marc Morandini.

“We receive an accumulation of pages on the case in question that we will read at full speed and comment afterwards.

I do not attest to any of these shows.

We're here to comment, ”said the 46-year-old man.

In the program of February 19, 2019, which earned him these lawsuits, the one who said he was paid 150 euros gross per program, once a week, had mentioned the content of the weekly

which published extracts of 'expertise.

“Perhaps we shouldn't have gone that far this time,” he admitted.

"There may have been an effect of competition between stakeholders".

The defendant, thundered Me Jakubowicz defender of Lelandais, “spreads throughout years on a ground which he does not know.

He has no diploma authorizing him to practice the regulated profession of psychotherapist ”.

The lawyer therefore went so far as to qualify him as a “hoax”.

"A search for the sensational"

"Each time, it is specified that the accused are presumed innocent, but we will not repeat it every five minutes", noted Pascal Neveu.

“In the questions asked during these shows, there is a search for the sensational, something that is intended to be excessive, do you agree?

», Asked the president Brigitte Vernay.

"Yes, the search for the sensational is legion", admitted the defendant.

“When we are live, there is this excitement, this dynamic.

But we are not going to say to the journalist "stop, I will not answer your questions" ".

For the representative of the public prosecutor Bernard Reynaud, who placed himself on the ground of morals and not that of the law, this procedure was not however necessary on behalf of Nordahl Lelandais.

“All my thoughts are with the families of the victims […].

There are rights that can be exercised, but there are circumstances which are indecent ”.

The decision will be released on October 20.

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