2023-10-12 04:47:00
On Wednesday March 29, Baroness Myriam Ullens de Schooten (Myriam Lechien, known as “Mimi”), was killed in front of her home located in the village of Ohain, in Lasne. The wife of Baron Guy Ullens, a wealthy Belgian businessman, was shot and killed by her son-in-law, Nicolas Ullens. Almost seven months following the events, the latter is still in preventive detention at Nivelles prison. He appeared last week before the council chambers for a request for release under an electronic bracelet, which was refused. He has appealed and will appear before the indictment chamber on October 18.
The investigation is still ongoing, which does not prevent the disclosure of a series of information in the press, targeting in particular Myriam Ullens in the alleged spending of her husband’s fortune, while the money is at the heart of this family drama. But for Virginie and Gilles, Mimi Ullens’ children, it’s too much. For the first time, they decided to speak regarding the facts to La Libre, via their lawyer, Laurent Kennes.
Nicolas Ullens must remain in prison: his lawyer wonders if it is “for fear of offending public opinion”
“Myriam Lechien’s children have refrained from any comments until now, but what is published in a certain press is becoming unbearable for them,” explains the lawyer. The affair is initially unfortunately as sordid as it is simple. Their mother, married to Guy Ullens for 30 years, was going to the doctor with her husband. And his stepson was waiting for them with a gun. He blocked their path, got out of his car, then shot their mother point-blank. He fired 6 bullets. Their mother had done nothing to justify or explain such an action. Nicolas Ullens is not a poor or abandoned man. Virginie, Gilles and their children lost a mother and grandmother whom they adored. If there is a public trial to be had, it is that of the murderer, not that of the victim.”
Good mother, good wife, good mother-in-law
Me Kennes thus believes that the story between Myriam Ullens and her husband seems rewritten in an attempt to make sense of this violence. He recalls that it was regarding a built and passionate couple, and not a sordid story concerning a woman vainly attracted by the money of her rich husband. “Thirty years ago, Guy left his first wife for his new love. He had four children from his first marriage and all were adults. Nicolas was 25 years old and married, continues Laurent Kennes. At the beginning, there was animosity from Guy’s children, who saw their mother suffering from this separation. Virginie and Gilles were teenagers. They hadn’t asked for anything. When Mimi and Guy got married, their mother did everything to be a good mother, a good wife and also a welcoming mother-in-law to her husband’s children. They witnessed their mother’s efforts in this direction.”
Time has done its work and tensions have intermittently eased with Guy’s children, but Mimi has often confided that she is afraid of her stepson, Nicolas. “There was no physical attack, but she was afraid of Nicolas. Mimi had spoken regarding it to her children, but no one had imagined the tragedy that occurred on March 29.”
“You killed her, kill me too then”: the last words of Baron Guy Ullens to his son during the murder of Myriam Ullens
However, Mimi would have done everything for the family to live in a certain harmony. Moreover, two of Guy Ullens’ four children still maintain cordial relations with the victim’s children today. “When we read certain articles, we have the impression that there are two clans, that is false. Nicolas and Brigitte, Guy’s youngest children, experienced their father’s new relationship less well, but that did not prevent the maintenance of good relationships with them, and with the two other children. Brigitte even organized her father and Mimi’s wedding. However, two days following the tragedy, she had terrible words in the press regarding her mother-in-law. There was neither compassion nor attention for the children and grandchildren of the victim,” laments Laurent Kennes.
”What if we took a little interest in the killer?”
If Myriam Ullens’ children are suffering today, do they understand the discomfort expressed by some of Baron Ullens’ children? What regarding reports that the mother-in-law was squandering the family fortune by giving large sums of money to her children, to the detriment of others? “First of all, this shouldn’t be the debate. My clients have read all kinds of claims regarding donations from their mother and stepfather. Some are true, others are completely false. They handed over the details to the courts, and I don’t see why they would come and spread all this in the press, sorting out the truth from the falsehood. They are victims, not suspects, and evoking these elements does nothing other than hide the real tragedy: the death of their mother in atrocious circumstances.”
And to conclude: “The truth is that Guy never favored his stepchildren to the detriment of his own children. And Myriam Ullens has never acted behind her husband’s back in the interests of her children. He was the one who managed his fortune and he was generous with his children, with his wife and with his stepchildren whom he knew and educated when they were still teenagers. Is this a crime? No. Do you want to look into what motivated the crime? Why are we interested in what the victim would have received as if it were a scandal to take advantage of the money of her husband of thirty years? Isn’t it like that in all couples? What if we focused a little on the killer rather than the victim? Do you think he lived in poverty? Nothing excuses this crime. And if there are mitigating circumstances, it will be up to the courts to say so. Myriam’s children now expect one thing from the future trial: that justice be done, that the truth be told in serenity. For the rest, they say they have lost what is dearest to them, and expect nothing other than respect for their mourning.”
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