Thirty years in prison for martyring a mentally retarded woman

A court, in France.

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Two women and a man, retried on appeal for having kidnapped, martyred and raped a young woman, slightly mentally retarded, in 2015 in Verdun (Meuse), saw their sentence greatly increased on Friday by the Moselle Assize Court, going up to thirty years of criminal imprisonment.

"The Assize Court has just rendered its verdict: thirty years of criminal imprisonment for my client," Laetitia Dupont, said his lawyer Me Etienne Mangeot, saying he was "stunned" by this verdict in accordance with the requisitions of the Advocate General.

Rejected alongside Laetitia Dupont, Manuel Pasquereau saw his sentence increased to twenty-eight years in prison and Caroline Denisart at twenty.

During the trial at first instance in February 2019 before the Assize Court of Meurthe-et-Moselle which concerned six people in total, Laetitia Dupont and Manuel Pasquereau, considered to be the most violent towards Cassandra, the victim suffering from 'a slight mental deficit, had been sentenced to eighteen years of criminal imprisonment and Caroline Denisart to fifteen years.

Nancy's attorney general had appealed against these three convictions.

"A blind, vengeful, crushing justice"

“I praised firm and humane justice at first instance.

There, it is a blind justice, vengeful, which crushes ”, reacted the lawyer of Laetitia Dupont.

The victim, Cassandra, then 20 years old, had revealed her ordeal in March 2015 arriving at the hospital with a swollen face, shaved head, skeletal and dirty.

In the previous days, she had been threatened with death and strangled twice.

For thirteen days, she was kidnapped, tied up, beaten, raped, burned, deprived of food, hygiene and care, twice forced to submerge in the Meuse.

Some abuse was photographed and filmed.

The young girl, who had left her host family for an apprenticeship contract in Verdun, had met the Dupont-Denisart couple.

After extorting his money from him, the two women had requested Pasquereau's assistance to administer a series of violence to him, in retaliation for an alleged theft.

According to

, the lawyers of Manuel Pasquereau and Caroline Denisart have decided to appeal in cassation.

Justice

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Miscellaneous

Meuse: A mutilated mare discovered dead in a park

• Lorraine

• Court of Appeal

• Justice

• Verdun

• Torture

• Sequestration

• Rape