Francis Evrard is a surname that sends shivers down the spine, like the history of the man who bears it, a repeat pedophile convicted eight times for rape of minors. And it is precisely this liability that this individual, a Roubaisian now aged 77, wishes to break away from by changing his name. According to our colleagues from RTLFrancis Evrard abandoned his father’s name to now bear his mother’s in anticipation of his release from prison.
On August 15, 2007, a 5-year-old child, little Enis, was kidnapped in Roubaix, in front of his parents’ home. The “Kidnapping Alert” system was triggered and the child was found, ten hours later, in a garage which served as the home of a certain Francis Evrard. Not only did the investigations establish that little Enis was raped, but it turned out that the suspect had been released from prison six weeks earlier, after being sentenced to twenty-seven years in prison for the rapes. of two boys aged 7 and 8.
Released in four years under a new name
This latest information caused general dismay and immense controversy over recidivism. Because Francis Evrard admitted, during his trial in 2009, to between forty and one hundred sexual relations with minors. Because his sentence to thirty years of criminal imprisonment by the Douai Assize Court for the rape of Enis is the eighth for similar facts. However, the repeat offender has reached the end of his twenty-year security period and will be freed in four years.
Releasable, in theory. Because when the time comes, and even if he meets certain criteria to request parole, in particular the completion of his security period and his age, the sentence enforcement court may refuse if he considers that there is a “serious risk of reoffending” or that this “may cause a serious disturbance to public order”.
When in doubt, Francis Evrard still anticipated his exit by asking to benefit from the Dupond-Moretti law of 2022 which allows “any adult person […] once in a lifetime [d’]access a simplified procedure to change your name. To our colleagues from RTL, the lawyer for the family of little Enis, Maître Emmanuel Riglaire, deplored that the pedophile, now bearing his mother’s name, finds thanks to this law a “possibility of escaping his past, of to find anonymity even though he is a man we know to be extremely dangerous.”