At the Assize Court of Isère
To probe the mind of Nordahl Lelandais is not easy. The mission, entrusted to the experts, proved delicate. They had to analyze the statements delivered spontaneously, without taking these explanations at face value. And without losing sight of the initial objective: to explain what prompted the accused to commit two murders and two sexual assaults, in the space of four months. Monday, on the eleventh day of the trial of the former soldier, tried for the murder of Maëlys, the psychologists and psychiatrists presented the fruit of their work at great length.
First lesson: man is driven by a “feeling of omnipotence, which goes beyond the human condition and beyond good and evil”, supports Magali Ravit, psychologist. “The right to life, which he has over Maëlys, is validated by the feeling of impunity that the murder of Arthur Noyer gives him”, abounds his colleague Raphaël Loiselot. Four months elapsed between the two killings, without the accused being worried. Without even appearing on the investigators’ radar. “Can this feeling of omnipotence lead to death? “Asks Jacques Dallest, the Advocate General. “Yes… Nothing more can happen at that moment,” replies Magali Ravit.
Devoid of affect
What “prevents taking action” is “affect”. But Nordahl Lelandais lacks it. Why ? “He did not have the sufficient emotional framework”, advances the psychologist. Contrary to what he claims, the boy never really spent time with his father, a “dominant and contemptuous man”, himself unloved by his mother. Conversely, the child has been “deified”, extolled by his mother who “constantly overinvests” him. “He is in a constant search for identity. There is an initial trauma”, analyzes Raphaël Loiselot, recalling that “time does not erase early trauma”.
Over the years, Lelandais has evolved into a sort of “Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde”. On the one hand, the “Nono”, a happy protector, party friend and faithful friend. On the other, a man in search of “increasingly significant bodily sensations”, “new experiments”, ever more trashy. A guy quick to push the limits, every time. Heterosexual relationships, voyeurism, sadomasochism, homosexual experiences, pedophile tendencies… “Have you seen all kinds of sexual addictions like that? asks Jacques Dallest. “No”, admits Magali Ravit.
“It feels like a Morandini show”
When it comes to summing up Nordahl Lelandais, Raphaël Loiselot goes straight to the point: “a narcissistic pervert”, “a psychopath”, a “psychotic”, animated by “a megalomaniacal omnipotence” and suffering from “dissociative disorders”. , he replies. But still ? “The first time I had met him, he had a dark look as if it were an act of visual predation. He had this gaze that gauges, which announces the challenge if ever we imagine something other than his innocence, ”comments the expert.
On the defense bench, Alain Jakubowicz, the defendant’s lawyer, fulminates. “Your report is steeped in factual elements and not scientific facts,” he attacks. And to press in a scathing tone: “You provide no explanation. It feels like a Morandini show that could be called Dans la tête de Nordahl Lelandais. »
False hallucinations?
The word “perverse” will however be abundantly taken up by Dr. François Danet, psychiatrist in Lyon. He too spoke on several occasions with the accused, during visits to the prison of Saint-Quentin-Fallavier or during his stay at the UHSA, a penitentiary psychiatric unit. At the time of killing Maëlys, the man was “not suffering from a mental disorder having alternated his discernment”, he assures with conviction. Yet this is what he tried to make psychiatrists buy into by evoking hallucinations. Lelandais repeated over and over again, having seen Arthur Noyer’s face melt into the girl’s body. Fear would have pushed him to “defend himself”, to strike to avoid being beaten.
“At that time of the interview, he tries to convince us that he had an acute delusional disorder to lead us to the side of criminal irresponsibility, remembers the psychiatrist. It is a form of manipulation on his part, well aware. These hallucinations did not take place. »
The experts are not yet done with Nordahl Lelandais. Others are called to testify all day Tuesday. The verdict is expected on February 18.
Follow the rest of this trial on the Twitter account of our journalist @CaroGirardon