“The tumble” of a “brutalized, submissive, exhausted” woman. At the opening of the trial of Laurence S. for the murder of her husband before the Assizes of Pas-de-Calais, in Saint-Omer, the court retraced, Wednesday, their 29 years of life together, of the “first violence” to “hell” the last few months.
As soon as they met, “he was very bossy, he used to humiliate him. Over the years, it has deteriorated. She lost her job. They got into debt, it was the descent into hell, ”summed up the mother of the accused at the helm, in a strangled voice.
“When I had him on the phone, I knew if he was in the room. We felt that she was afraid, ”the septuagenarian is moved. “For me, it was her or him. She defended herself ”.
“I was afraid for my life”
In early April 2015, the body of Reynald S., 49, was discovered lying on the marriage bed, dead for a fortnight and in a state of putrefaction.
His wife Laurence, 47 years old at the time of the facts, had remained cloistered in the apartment. She had quickly explained that during a heated argument, she had strangled her husband with the extension of the iron, when he had just tried to suffocate her with a pillow.
“I was afraid for my life” so “I took the extension” and “I tightened”, explains the accused. Before hesitating, when the investigation did not make it possible to identify precisely the causes of death: “I think I did it (…) but I wonder if it really happened”.
“You had managed to push the pillow and get out of bed (…) why didn’t you leave the room? », Asks the president. “I was not allowed to leave. I could not. He told me to stay there, ”replies Laurence S., sober blue jacket and short hair.
“Insulting, denigrating”
At the helm, the personality investigator retraces an “unhappy” childhood, “under the influence” of an often alcoholic father, violent with his mother. After short studies, Laurence S. was hired as a cashier in a supermarket, then met her husband in 1986.
According to his relatives and colleagues, Reynald is “insulting, denigrating”, he isolates him and shows him no affection. After a few years Laurence S. has an affair, and her husband then falls into physical violence.
Depressed after the death of his father, suffering from bipolar disorders, Reynald S. was placed on disability in 2005. But the couple continued to “spend, do work”. So to pay off the debts, Laurence regularly robs her employer, and loses her job.
“Everyone supports madam”
Timidly, Laurence S. testifies to her constant “fear”. “Finally, everyone supports Madam”, observes the president, including within the family of the deceased, of which no member has complained. “If we cannot condone your gesture, we understand it”, even wrote A., Reynald’s sister to the accused, in a letter read at the hearing.
Thursday, the court will consider the circumstances of the death, while according to the autopsy report, corroborated by additional analyzes, the scientific findings are “not compatible” with strangulation using a cable or a link.
Verdict Friday.