“When you have a drama like this, it’s a failure for everyone,” said Nantes deputy prosecutor Yvon Ollivier during a press conference.
The suspect François V., team leader in a brickyard, has a heavy criminal record behind him. In December 2005, this original Poitevin, then director of an industrial site, was sentenced to the assizes to 18 years of criminal imprisonment for nine rapes, three attempts and one sexual assault committed in Vienne, Charente-Maritime and Charente between 2001 and 2003.
His victims were gagged, tied up, blindfolded, sometimes at the threat of a knife.
Released in 2016, he had found work, had moved to Mésanger, in Loire-Atlantique, near Ancenis. “He had even found a companion. We were able to think of a form of stabilization,” said Mr. Ollivier, assuring that there was “not the slightest element that could (suggest) a weakening of the interested lately which could have led him to take action. “
“In this case, we are dealing with someone who presented a completely smooth figure”, insisted the magistrate, stressing that the suspect respected all the obligations of his socio-judicial follow-up, in particular the injunction of care .
“He saw a psychotherapist once every two months,” he said.
And yet, when François V. comes to Nantes, rue Adolphe-Moitié, on August 20, it is in order to take action, he admitted in police custody. He had already scouted this street and found there that day an unoccupied apartment because it was under construction.
“Form of regret”
“The victim was passing by, she had the misfortune to please him”, said the magistrate.
He manages to get her up by asking her for help carrying a cardboard box, a procedure he had used in the past. Raped, the teenager was then strangled with a cable. “It was to prevent him from screaming,” said the magistrate.
Then, the man sprinkles his victim with bleach and sets the apartment on fire. It is the firefighters, called for a fire, who will discover his body.
Verbalized for embarrassing parking on the day of the incident, the suspect was quickly identified by investigators and then followed in his every move. His DNA was also found under the victim’s fingernails. About twenty investigators from the Nantes judicial police, reinforced in particular by the research and intervention brigade, were mobilized.
Arrested Thursday at 4.30 p.m., “he spontaneously delivered precise and detailed confessions,” said Pascal Gontier, deputy interregional director of the Rennes judicial police.
The suspect was deferred on Saturday to the Nantes prosecutor’s office, which opened a judicial investigation for intentional homicide followed by another crime in recurrence, rape in recurrence and willful destruction by fire in recurrence.
His companion, who knew his judicial past but not the latest facts, was left free.
“He expressed a form of regret,” said Mr. Ollivier, describing “someone who is wondering a little about himself”.
The suspect was indicted and remanded in custody, the prosecution announced on Saturday evening.
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