He served eighteen years in prison, has been free for ten years, and claims, more than ever, his innocence. Dany Leprince, convicted of the murders of his brother, his sister-in-law and his two nieces in 1994 in Sarthe, recounts for the first time in a book “the judicial harassment” he says he experienced and his hope to see his revised trial. “Only those who have felt the injustice in the depths of their being can understand my quest for truth,” writes Dany Leprince, 65, in They stole my lifeto be published on November 16 (Flammarion).
“After eighteen years in prison, I’m free, but it’s a decoy,” adds Dany Leprince, who now lives in Lot-et-Garonne. Sentenced to life imprisonment with a security period of 22 years in 1997 for the quadruple murder, he was released on parole in 2012. Since last year, he is no longer under judicial supervision and can now express themselves on this affair which is still highly publicized.
The pointed instruction
On September 4, 1994, his younger brother Christian Leprince, his wife and two of their daughters, aged 7 and 10, were found stabbed to death in their house in Thorigné-sur-Dué. Their 2-year-old daughter is the only survivor. Two days later, Dany Leprince was arrested with four other members of his family, including his wife Martine.
After forty-six hours in police custody, denounced by his wife and his eldest daughter, he confesses to the murder of his younger brother, without mentioning his sister-in-law and the two children. But, he quickly retracts and claims since his innocence. With this confession “extorted” and “let go after exhaustion, I locked myself in a completely absurd version of the facts and I blame myself for having fallen into a diabolical trap”, he says in this book written with the journalist Bernard Nicolas.
Over the chapters, he returns to the “wobbly” and “directed” instruction that led to his conviction. No fingerprint or genetic belonging to him is discovered at the scene of the crimes, recalls Dany Leprince, who was divided at the time of the facts between the breeding activity of his wife and his job in a slaughterhouse.
Only the contradictory statements of his wife, from whom he is divorced, and their eldest overwhelm him. He wonders about the role in the murders of Martine, whose versions fluctuate. “Inert” to the statement of the verdict, Dany Leprince has “the impression of coming out of a botched trial”. “Perpetuity goes well beyond the deprivation of liberty, it can be the negation of the individual”.
He believes in a revision
At the time, it was not possible to appeal against a conviction at the assizes and his appeal in cassation was rejected. A first request for revision led in 2006 to new investigations.
Dany Leprince returns to this day in June 2010, when the president of the review board recognizes “the weaknesses of the investigation file” and lists the facts that may justify a second trial. Until then, he had only “faced an aggressive, accusatory justice, which never ceased to overwhelm (him)”. He was then released and his file sent to the Court of Revision, which rejected his request the following year. “I am still standing because I am innocent,” he recalls.
In March 2021, he filed a second motion for review. Two months later, additional information was ordered and since “many acts of investigation are underway”, assures his lawyer, Me Olivier Morice. A dozen investigators are responsible for these investigations, “which shows the importance given to the file,” said Me Morice.
“It’s a legal epic because the successful review procedures are extremely rare and are a kind of miracle, as justice is reluctant to accept to recognize its errors”, underlines Me Morice. “Even if this fight seems endless to him”, Dany Leprince and his lawyer “remain convinced that this time the chances of success are serious”, he added.