Horror Movie Sunday at Revel. Alcoholic, a 36-year-old man entered a young mother’s house in the middle of the night, a garbage bag on her head before miming the sexual act. Before the Toulouse Criminal Court, this immature individual might not explain himself.
Arms crossed over his white polo shirt when his hand does not cover his face, Sebastien hides, literally and figuratively, before the Toulouse criminal court. A pretty young woman of 23, very calm, observes him. Neither tears nor nervousness when this mother of two very young children recounts her nightmare. “I thought I was dreaming but no…”
On Sunday, this woman slept in her house in Revel. Her 3-month-old daughter was lying in a cot and her 2-year-old sister was in the next room. “The little one started screaming. I woke up and saw a black shape in front of me. And two eyes, two holes in reality…”
Under a garbage bag (!), Sebastien then straddled the young woman, violently grabbed her wrists and mimicked a sexual gesture with gestures from the pelvis. “I screamed. Then I talked to him. He was telling me not to be afraid, that he had loved me for 2 years…He smelled of alcohol.”
In the box, this team leader in the cleaning tries to disappear. It even dries up tears. His victim, remarkably calm, still says: “I spoke to him. He told me that he was in love, that I knew him. I did not understand. I told him to remove the bag. He He didn’t want to. He let me go, sat down on the edge of the bed, told me regarding my ex-boyfriend, regarding the money he owed me… He ended up leaving. I calmed the little one and called the gendarmes. I didn’t know where I was. I closed everything. He tried to come back. Not my daughter’s room, then he went through the garage. He ended up leaving. It was long, at least half an hour in all.”
The gendarmes arrested him at the end of the impasse. “I don’t understand what got into me,” apologizes the 36-year-old man. President Myriam Viargues is worried, is looking for details. “I am not able to explain; I want to apologize.”
The victim: “For me, he is nothing”
The victim’s mother and father, with whom he worked, watch him, worried and angry. Their daughter, without hatred, does not understand. “I worked with his former partner. I had to buy him coffee once or twice, good morning, good evening. For me, he is nothing.”
His lawyer Me Brice Zanin is worried: “How does he know regarding his ex-boyfriend? Why have we already seen him in the dead end where this young woman lives?” It suggests a premeditation, a very unhealthy surveillance. “Alcohol gives him strength. He feels his wings growing, he loses his inhibitions”. The lawyer presses before the court: “Imagine: 5 hours in the middle of the night, you sleep, you wake up and there he is, two eyes coming out of a garbage bag… Imagine!”
The prosecution wants “more than care, necessarily necessary”. “The facts are too serious. He cannot go home, as if nothing happened.” The magistrate requires 30 months in prison, 12 of which are suspended probation and a warrant of committal. “Excessive! Above all, it makes no sense,” replies Me Cécile Bordes-Escaich, in defense. “What is needed is to treat him. His alcohol problems, his malaise.” And the lawyer tackles the civil party: “Premeditate? Premeditate what? The psychiatric expert says it: he is totally immature, unable to project himself. It’s sad but he is above all a poor guy.”
Sebastien, finally looking at his victim, apologizes once more: “I’m sorry for the harm I’ve done”.
The court sentenced him to 30 months in prison, 12 of which were probationary suspended with an obligation of care and a ban on contact with his victim. He is kept in detention.
