• Two men confessed to having attacked an octogenarian, near Mende (Lozère) on the night of January 28 to 29, 2019.

  • Convinced that their victim kept several thousand euros, they went after her.

  • The Lozère Assize Court sentenced them Wednesday to fifteen years of criminal imprisonment.

Sébastien Pastot, a 34-year-old mason from the north of France, and Franck Théobald, a 39-year-old Gardois had reiterated their confessions on Wednesday morning, on the third and last day of their trial at the Assizes.

In the early evening, they were found guilty of having, on the night of January 28 to 29, 2019, kidnapped and stolen money and various objects, with the help of a weapon, from Denys Tichit, a former 81-year-old engineer who lived in an isolated house in Chastel-Nouvel, a village located five kilometers on the heights of Mende, in Lozère.

Security penalty

And they were sentenced to 15 years of criminal imprisonment, accompanied by a safety sentence of seven and a half years and an order for treatment.

The attorney general, Vincent Blériot, had been less severe by requesting a thirteen-year prison sentence for the two men who faced a maximum sentence of thirty years in prison.

"The civil parties are satisfied because it is a sentence adapted to the acts perpetrated", reacted Me Jean-Philippe Galtier, lawyer of Florence Tichit, one of the two daughters of the victim.

The sanction is considered "a little high" by Franck Théobald's lawyer, Me Hélène Mordacq and "important" for that of Sébastien Pastot, Me Cédric Galandrin.

The two lawyers said they would use the ten days they have to think about a possible appeal.

Many clues

The guilt of the two men left little doubt as the two drinking companions in Mende had left traces of their passage, which allowed their arrest two months later.

Questioned on Wednesday morning, they admitted having organized this expedition together with Denys Tichat, explaining that they were convinced that the retiree, with whom Sébastien Pastot had carried out work a few months earlier, held thousands of euros in a safe.

A paltry booty

Hooded, armed and very alcoholic, according to their statements, the two men took the octogenarian out of his bed around midnight.

At gunpoint, they beat him with rifles, punches and kicks, dragged him to the ground and tied him up to reveal to them where he was hiding his money.

Despite his protests, they attacked the old man, who did not have a safe, before leaving with only about sixty euros and a few bottles of alcohol.

Heavy sequelae

For the old man, the “suffering” endured that night was terrible and the after-effects remain significant, since he “no longer recognizes anyone” and now lives in a retirement home, another lawyer for the elderly underlined in his plea. civil parties, Me Alain Dibandjo.

Although they expressed regret and that they lived at the time in a certain social precariousness, Sébastien Pastot and Franck Théobald "had the keys to get by" and were "perfectly free not to form this criminal duo. “, Had underlined the Advocate General in his indictment.

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  • Assize Court

  • Languedoc-Roussillon

  • Justice

  • Violence