He would have kidnapped, tortured and starved for several months a 19 year old girl met on the internet before abandoning him in the wild: a man was indicted in Béziers (Hérault), with four members of his family, announced Friday the parquet. On November 2, 2019, "an unconscious young woman was discovered by a mountain biker in an isolated roadside area in Vias (Hérault)," said prosecutor Raphaël Balland in a press release.
"From September 2019, he would have abused her, locked her in a locked locker room"
"In hypothermia (22 °), lightly dressed despite low temperatures, weighing less than 40 kg and swollen face, she had been hospitalized in absolute emergency in Montpellier" and fell into a coma for nine days. The victim, originally from Châteauroux, suffered from serious social difficulties. She had joined in the summer of 2019, in Agde (Hérault), a 22-year-old man met on social networks, and was staying with this man and his 24-year-old brother.
"From September 2019, he would have ill-treated her, locked her in a padlocked cubbyhole, tied, gagged, regularly beaten, living in a state of permanent filth, deprived of food and care and even sometimes forced to eat cat feces, "said the prosecutor. The young woman would also have been forced to pay back to her executioner her social benefits, "in particular to buy video games".
On 1 November, after further violence which had worsened the victim's state of health, the two brothers, 22 and 24 years old, decided with their mother "to extract the victim from the accommodation but not to drive him to a hospital, for fear of being denounced. They then transported it in a vehicle to abandon it, at night, at the place of its discovery by the cyclist the next morning, "said the prosecutor in his press release. A third brother, 25, "would have learned of the victim's abandonment without notifying the emergency services," he added.
The two brothers, 22 and 24, were indicted on February 26 for forcible confinement in order to facilitate acts of torture and barbarism and extortion of the victim's means of payment and imprisoned, like their mother and her companion, under examination, in particular for voluntary abstention from preventing a crime. The third brother was placed under judicial supervision, after being indicted for voluntary abstention from preventing a crime or an offense against the integrity of persons.
"The victim is still unable to speak and has still not spoken"
The 44-year-old mother is also accused of modifying the crime scene to obstruct the discovery of the truth. The prosecution of Béziers also asked for the indictment of the two brothers of 22 and 24 years and their mother for "attempted assassination" for having abandoned the victim in the middle of the night, "dying and very lightly dressed, despite winter temperatures , in an isolated place ". This request for investigation for attempted assassination was rejected by the investigating judge, but the public prosecutor's office appealed against this refusal.
To date, the victim is still hospitalized and in a fragile psychological state. "The soldiers of the research section (of the gendarmerie) investigated socially very disadvantaged people who had no criminal record," commented Raphaël Balland, referring to "a particularly nauseating affair".
"The victim is still unable to speak and has still not spoken. We do not even know if he will ever be able to do so," the magistrate continued with AFP. "Will she want to speak one day? We are in the unknown," he added, recalling: "Let us be clear. We have only one version, that of the main defendant. Still remain many unanswered questions. "