By Emilie Jouvin
Published on 29 Jan 21 at 19:51
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It all started with one cigarette too many. On the night of December 24 to 25, 2020, the Christmas dinner (very alcoholic for some of the guests) ends, in a house in La Madeleine-Bouvet (Orne), when the tone rises between a man and his companion.
Cigarettes and punches
He reproaches her for wanting to burn a third cigarette, while she suffers from the lungs.
The nephew of the latter, aged 19, intervenes. Then? It is difficult to know which of the aunt’s nephew or companion draws his fists first, as the versions differ. But blows are exchanged, and the older one bleeds from the nose and decides to call his son for help. The latter wakes up a few meters from here, and arrives there accompanied by his stepfather, with the idea of recovering his 10-year-old little brother, also present at this evening which is getting worse.
” To defend oneself “
The duo will face the nephew, finally the nephews, since the young man of 19 years was in the company of his younger brother (21 years), that evening. It is these two brothers, who were on trial in the context of the immediate appearance before the correctional court of Alençon, Friday, January 20, 2021 (the trial was postponed after one of the brothers asked for a delay to prepare his defense, January 8).
They are accused of having given, in the fight, cuts with cutters for one and scissors for the other. Both admitted to having used a bladed weapon, but explained that they had “only” “defended” themselves.
Open and deep wounds
The eldest does not really know what he had in his hands: “I was being massacred, I took something from the sink, it might have been scissors”, describes the one. who says he wanted to “save” his life.
But it is that of his opponent, which he could have taken. The son of the aunt’s companion finished in the operating room of the CHU de Caen. The coroner’s certificate shows various open and deep wounds. Balance: 30 days of ITT (Total incapacity for work).
If the other brother hit with a cutter, it is because he was “strangled”, he assures us.
His victim, the stepfather, comes out with multiple wounds on his back and neck, and 10 days of ITT.
In the house, on the evening of the incident, when the gendarmes arrived, around 2:30 am, there was “blood everywhere”, but no trace of the two brothers.
At the bar, they claim to have fled “out of fear”: “Our aunt’s companion wanted to kill us, he was looking for a gun. “
“A centimeter from the carotid”
“This is not self-defense,” objected the lawyer for the civil parties at the hearing: “Punching against stabbing, it is not equal. “
The public prosecutor notes for his part that “the drama was narrowly avoided”: “One of the blows with a knife went to a centimeter of the carotid”, he explains before requesting, against the two brothers, 24 months in prison, including 12 months with a two-year probationary period including the obligations of care, work, compensating the victims, and the prohibition to come into contact with them .
The court was more lenient: it released one of the two brothers, and sentenced the second to three months in prison.
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