What first appeared as a classic case of domestic violence in a home in Blanc-Mesnil (Seine-Saint-Denis), judged late at night in immediate appearance at the Bobigny court, turned out to be a much more opaque case. than expected, which has taken on unexpected media coverage and societal coloring.
In an extremely sensitive time on the subject of violence once morest women, the judicial release of the former member of the France team – who denies having hit his partner -, followed by the publication by Margaux Pinot of a photo of his bruised head in a cry of rage on social networks, caused a scandal at the end of last year.
For days, the ex-lovers repeated the trial multiple times through press conferences and TV shows. Sports and political personalities, such as Teddy Riner or Roxana Maracineanu, have publicly supported the 27-year-old young woman, gold medalist at the last Olympic Games with the mixed French team and suddenly propelled into an emblematic victim of unpunished domestic violence.
However, in this case, the two protagonists, who each had multiple bruises, offer with the same aplomb totally contradictory versions of the events of the night of November 28, 2021.
Alain Schmitt, 43, did he hit Margaux Pinot with his fists when he came home tipsy from the evening, his companion having only defended himself, as she says? Or did Margaux Pinot pounce on him in an argument and bump into each other across the apartment in a clinch as he tries to calm her down, as he claims ?
“As sensitive as the subject of domestic violence is, it cannot lead to a presumption of guilt which is not provided for by law”, considered the court of Bobigny in its judgment of November 30 consulted by AFP, considering the evidence insufficient to convict Alain Schmitt.
Because, according to the judges of first instance, “the objective elements, just like the lesions observed on one and the other, the traces of struggle observed in the apartment” indeed accredit the account of Margaux Pinot just as well than that of the defendant. The prosecution, which had requested a conviction, appealed.
