• Renaud Gaudeul, 49, is the new public prosecutor of Nantes.

    He succeeds Pierre Sennès.

  • The former prosecutor of Martinique strongly criticized the state on Monday about the lack of means found at the Nantes court.

A little less than a month after his arrival in Nantes, the new public prosecutor, Renaud Gaudeul, was officially installed in his functions this Monday afternoon. A solemn moment, in the presence of the authorities, that the former prosecutor of Martinique used to set foot in the dish and vigorously denounce the lack of means found at the judicial court of Nantes. In turn, he evokes the "files that pile up", a "crushing feeling of helplessness", a "generalized embolism situation" linked to the overload of work.

“When you are the victim of a criminal offense, you must know that if the case is simple, you will be summoned at best in January… 2023, describes Renaud Gaudeul.

Worse: the most serious, the most complex cases, those entrusted to the examining magistrates, wait several years before considering being able to go to the hearing.

Some do not escape it and are affected by the limitation period of 6 years before being able to be examined by a trial court.

This situation is not acceptable.

"

The differences with the police pointed out

This observation had already been expressed on several occasions by magistrates and officials of the Nantes courthouse, in particular during a change of mood in June. The new prosecutor is already on their side. “How can an examining magistrate, just like his clerk, find meaning in his work when he knows that his case will not go to hearing for many years, if it one day reaches this stage? he asks himself aloud. How can a public prosecutor find meaning in the prosecution he carries out when he knows that his case will not be judged for many, many months, at a hearing where the accused will most often be absent, having in the interval forgot his court date? What words can a lawyer find to explain to his client, victim of sexual assault,that the investigation has ended but that it must now wait several years before it can be examined by a trial court? Outside the scope of emergency, Nantes justice is no longer credible, is no longer audible. "

Renaud Gaudeul could have stopped there. But he continued, astonished, looking at the prefect present in the room, at the differences in treatment between the staff of the justice system and those of the police and gendarmerie, the latter having been the subject of several recent recruitment announcements. “When we strengthen the staff of the judicial police by 25%, we automatically increase by 25% the cases presented to justice. It will not slip away. But with constant means, there is no mystery: it is other files which will fall by the wayside. And then, what is the meaning of reinforcing the workforce if, downstream, we are not in a position to reserve a criminal prosecution for these clarified cases? What is the meaning of this reinforcement if, still further downstream,do the services responsible for taking care of convicted persons fail to cope with their mission? Blame a lack of sufficient incarceration? I don't mind, but is it audible here in Nantes when the prisons are already full, even overflowing since no less than thirty inmates sleep on mattresses on the floor. If this consistency is not worked on, then yes, indeed, we can say that the problem of the police is justice. "it is justice. "it is justice. "

He wants to develop alternatives to prosecution

Renaud Gaudeul suggests developing alternatives to prosecution, in particular by having recourse to the penal composition after deferral (CAPD): a "device which consists of immediately proposing a sanction to the perpetrator of an offense to refer to the prosecution: a job not paid for example ”.

“This is how, little by little, we will loosen the stranglehold that constrains the traditional means of prosecution.

This is how the trial times will decrease.

And it is thus that the royal road, that of the passage before a court of judgment, will recover its splendor.

"

The public prosecutor also announced on Monday that the fight against delinquency in the city center of Nantes, the fight against drug trafficking, the fight against violence against women and that against environmental damage would be his "Priorities".

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