Elodie (assumed name) suffered assault and battery last April. She moved so that her abuser wouldn’t find her. A few days ago, she received the summons to appear before the Dinant criminal court. Two addresses were there: that of his former companion and his own. The bailiff confirmed to him that the other party had received the same summons. Her attacker now knows her new address. She can’t sleep anymore.
Elodie is 28 when she ends a very toxic relationship. “This is where my life became a nightmare. A police investigation showed he sent me up to 650 messages a day. He broke down my door, kicked my company car, put a ladder against my bedroom window to try to get in there. He made death threats against me and people I associated with. Elodie lists what was a nightmare for months. The man will then act in the same way with another woman. All these facts were brought together in a single file, for which the man was convicted.
Elodie flees. She moves abroad, but returns because of the Covid crisis. She then went through a somewhat complicated period. Having lost her job, she falls under the influence of this man. “He promised me that he had changed, that he was no longer the same as before”. This is clearly not the case. The young woman says that she then suffered blows and injuries and vexations of all kinds to the point of arriving one day at the police station, her face swollen. “I had broken up, I was bringing his things back to him. He hit me. It shows in the photos”. The man will be incarcerated for two months. Elodie lodges a complaint and flees again. She is moving for the fifth time in four years. “The slightest noise – door bell, noise of a door latch being shaken, a car slowing down a little too much in front of my house – gives me a lot of stress”.