Justice accuses him of having wanted to kill them, which he denies: a year after having overthrown two gendarmes in the Creuse, a British crook known to have inspired a documentary and a film, participates Thursday and Friday in the reconstruction of the facts .
Robert Hendy-Freegard, 52, is indicted for “attempted murder of persons holding public authority” and imprisoned in France since last October. The case began on August 25, 2022 in Vidaillat, a village in the south of the department, where he owned a house with his partner.
Eight days on the run
That day, the fifty-year-old had been checked during the transfer of his dog breeding, covered by an administrative formal notice. Then driving his car, he fled after an exchange with the gendarmes, hitting two of them, who were prescribed six and 21 days of total incapacity for work (ITT).
After eight days on the run, he was arrested by Belgian police on a highway near Brussels, then transferred to an examining magistrate in Limoges. “The reconstitution is an important act in the procedure. My client has always denied the intention to kill anyone, and this in a constant way ”, affirms today the lawyer of the Briton, Juliette Magne-Gandois.
He had extorted more than a million pounds from several victims
Robert Hendy-Freegard circulated incognito in the Creuse but is far from being an unknown: a documentary (The Puppetmaster: manipulation lessons) and a fiction film (RogueAgent) were dedicated to him.
In 2005, he was sentenced in the United Kingdom to life in prison for kidnapping, deception and theft after extracting more than a million pounds from students and women, notably by posing as a spy for the MI5, the British secret service. He was released in 2009 after obtaining an appeal against his conviction for kidnappings.
In Vidaillat, his neighbors, who suspect him of having had a hold on his companion for several years, must participate in the reconstruction as witnesses: “It will plunge us back into it a year later but we should not learn a lot of things. Above all, we are waiting for the trial, ”said one of them.