Yvelines: an "expert in seduction" sentenced to life for a feminicide

Europe 1 with AFP 6:13 p.m., January 25, 2023

An "expert in seduction" and "masculinity" was sentenced on Wednesday by the Yvelines Assize Court to life imprisonment for having murdered his ex-companion with nearly 80 stab wounds, and having stabbed him multiple times sister and her new companion.

Mickaël Philétas, now 41, was found guilty of the murder of Mélanie G., 34, attempted murder of the victim's new companion and attempted murder as well as sexual assault under the gunpoint at his little sister in January 2020.

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Life imprisonment requested by the Advocate General

"We wanted the most serious sentence and we got it," said the mother of the victim, a civil party to the trial, leaving the courtroom.

Describing a "savage crime" whose premeditation was "undoubted", the general counsel had requested in the morning life imprisonment with a security period of 22 years.

During his argument, the defense lawyer, Me Guillaume Gombart, had called on the court not to retain premeditation, without success.

Me Frédéric Roussel, counsel for the parents and two sisters of Mélanie G., welcomed to AFP a sentence "fair, adapted and proportional to the seriousness of the facts".

In the box, sitting straight up, wrapped in a black anorak, Mickaël Philétas did not react to the statement of the verdict.

Nearly 80 stab wounds in January 2020

In January 2020 he broke into the home of his ex-girlfriend in the middle of the night, “obsessed” according to him with the idea of ​​knowing if she was dating another man.

He had stabbed him nearly 80 times.

The death of Mélanie G. had been confirmed on the spot, shortly after the arrival of the emergency services.

Zumba teacher, the accused hosted a YouTube channel with nearly 1,000 videos, in which he proclaimed himself "virtuoso of seduction", "specialist in masculinity" and vilified the "castration" of men by their companions.

"It is clear that Mickaël Philétas does not tolerate a woman standing up to him," said the Advocate General in his indictment, citing in particular a video from the channel hosted by the accused entitled "How to knock out an ex".

Referring in his pleading to the videos posted online by his client, Me Guillaume Gombart had pointed to an "ideology" which would have "made him crazy".

On several occasions, Mickaël Philétas had alluded on his channel to the American movement "MGTOW" ("Men going their own way", in French "men who take their own way"), which brings together men who consider all relations with women.

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The Assize Court notes the "relentlessness" of the suspect

In its motivations, the Yvelines Assize Court noted the "relentlessness" which Mickaël Philétas showed by attacking the little sister of Mélanie G., at the time aged 20.

The night of the crime, before going to the victim's bedroom, where she was with her new companion, he had first come across her, asleep in the living room.

Under the threat of a knife, he had forced her to be silent, before lowering her pants and her panties, handcuffing her and stabbing her thirty times.

"I collapsed. (...) When I regain consciousness, I hear the cries of my sister in agony. She screams in pain", said the 23-year-old young woman last week at the bar. .

Monday afternoon, the accused had invoked his right to silence throughout his interrogation.

This silence reflected a "very, very big shame", he explained at the end of the hearing.

"What is there to defend? How could I dare to defend myself?" he added.

Mickaël Philétas was sentenced in 2015 to a suspended prison sentence for violence against a former companion.