At the opening of his appeal trial, Willy Bardon chose not to change his line of defense.

Sentenced in December 2019 to thirty years of criminal imprisonment for the kidnapping, rape and death of Elodie Kulik in 2002, he again proclaimed his innocence on Monday before the North Assize Court in Douai.

The defense also unsuccessfully requested a referral, before demanding the release of the accused for the duration of the trial, also rejected by the court.

The contrasting personality of the accused, difficult to grasp in the light of the dissonant echoes of his relatives who describe him for some as "good, kind", for others as a "scheming, high roller" and "flirtatious", has quickly occupied the center of the debate.

" Finally !

Willy Bardon has been unhappy for seven years, it'll be twenty years, ”was moved a few minutes before the hearing, the victim's father, Jacky Kulik, brandishing a large portrait of his daughter, who died at 24.

"I hope he will have at least the same (sentence), or even more".

A chilling phone call

On January 11, 2002, Elodie Kulik, director of a bank branch, was found stripped and partially charred in Tertry in the Somme, six kilometers from her damaged car. Before she died, she had called for help, a chilling 26-second recording considered the centerpiece of the case, where her screams mingle with at least two male voices. One of them was confused by his DNA. Died in 2003, this alleged attacker, Grégory Wiart, could not be tried.

Member of the intimate circle of Grégory Wiart, Willy Bardon, former plumber and bar owner, was placed in police custody in 2013 with seven relatives.

Several then claimed to recognize his voice in the telephone recording.

In a gray shirt and shaved head in the box, the 46-year-old accused has Monday, as since his first arrest, pleaded "not guilty".

"Are there two Willy Bardons?"

", Launched Monday evening the lawyer of the civil parties, Me Didier Seban, questioning the investigator of personality.

The discovery, at the time of the investigation, "of a hidden relationship" with the companion of his nephew "changed the perception" of relatives, analyzed the investigator.

"He is good, kind, generous", on the other hand said at the bar his companion at the time of the facts.

"I did not know" the man described by the gendarmes, she added.

"I had a big mouth (...) I like a drink", but "I'm not the first to have a mistress", reacted in the box Willy Bardon.

One of his lawyers, Me Gabriel Dumenil, lamented that we “make the connection between this double love life” and “the fact that he may have been lying” on the facts with which he is accused.

"In this case, there is so little material evidence (...) that we focus on small elements" of daily life, he commented later to the press.

"But he is innocent and we will prove it".

Justice

Willy Bardon on appeal for the murder and rape of Elodie Kulik in 2002

Society

"I wanted to put the victims back at the heart of criminal media cases"

  • Appeal

  • Picardy

  • Elodie Kulik

  • Douai

  • Video

  • Murder

  • Justice