The public prosecutor Philippe Astruc here during a press conference on the murder of Magali Blandin near Rennes.

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DAMIEN MEYER / AFP

  • Magali Blandin was murdered by her husband Jérôme Gaillard, from whom she was separated, with a baseball bat.

  • The lawyer for the mother of the accused, indicted with her May for aiding and abetting murder, disputes the charges against her client.

  • She has appealed against her detention and will request an annulment of her indictment.

The funeral of Magali Blandin, killed by her husband with a baseball bat, will take place Thursday afternoon in the church of Bain-de-Bretagne (Ille-et-Vilaine), the town where her family is from.

In this criminal case described as "extraordinary" by investigators, Jérôme Gaillard, who confessed to the murder, was indicted on Friday for murder by spouse.

His parents, aged 72 and 75, were also indicted for "aiding and abetting spousal murder" and "aiding and abetting attempted murder by a spouse" after a first criminal project developed in the fall.

This Wednesday, the lawyer for Jérôme Gaillard's mother appealed against his detention and will request an annulment of his indictment.

"There are no serious and consistent clues justifying an indictment," said Maître Gwendoline Ténier, refuting the existence of a family plot.

According to the lawyer, nothing indicates that the parents were aware of the use of the sum of 20,000 euros provided to their son.

“Classic parent-to-child” financial assistance

According to the elements of the investigation, a "criminal conspiracy" to eliminate Magali Blandin began in November 2020 between the husband and his Georgian relations, to whom he paid 20,000 euros to execute his wife.

For their part, the Georgians dispute any link between this sum and the disappearance of the mother of the family.

“Jérôme Gaillard had no job, was going through a divorce.

Financially things were a bit complicated, and there was the need to pay attorney fees.

It is a classic help from parents to children, ”said Maître Ténier about these 20,000 euros.

Concerning the mother's knowledge of her son's criminal plan, “legally, parental immunity means that he cannot be accused of not denouncing a crime, provided that the investigation supports the fact that the parents were aware of the execution of this project ”, assures the lawyer.

"My client is someone who has toiled all her life"

She also disputes the qualification of "complicity in murder".

"The very concept of murder is instantaneity, the bloodshed", underlined Maître Ténier.

“This suggests that the parents were involved in the act of causing death, by holding the baseball bat for example.

However nothing in the file supports that they were complicit in a murder ”, continued the lawyer.

“My client is someone who has toiled all her life” and who “faced with her husband the suicide of their other son ten years ago, in a context of separation,” she added.

The father's lawyer, Maître Olivier Chauvel, has refused for the time being to comment.

Society

"Nobody could have imagined that he could go that far", according to the lawyer for the family of Magali Blandin

Justice

Why was Magali Blandin's complaint for domestic violence dismissed?

  • Feminicide

  • Mother

  • Lawyer

  • Miscellaneous

  • Murder