“I knew that my conscience would end up betraying me, that I was going to confess everything, either to my wife or to the police. I wanted their daughter to have a burial. From the start of his trial, David R. admitted everything. The man appears for the rape and murder of Angélique Six, 13, on April 25, 2018, in Wambrechies (North).
White sneakers, black sweater, bald head, the accused cracked at the start of the hearing, sobbing in his cubicle. To the first question from President Sylve Karas, he recounted the ordeal that Angelique suffered. The heavy atmosphere settles in the courtroom and will never leave it.
“Sudden excitement”
“I had a sudden excitement for Angélique. I tricked into taking her home. I touched his private parts. She pulled my hand away saying it hurt. I quit and panicked. I strangled her with her pants. I left at random with his body in a suitcase. On my return, I threw up whatever I could throw up. I saw the crime scene again. I wrote a letter to my wife and children explaining what I had done. “
The facts are clear. Horribly clear. In this hearing, it is above all the personality of the accused that appears to be blurred. Who is David R., presented as a loving father and husband? The first outlines were laid by the personality investigator. A youth marked by thefts and lies, a stint in the army where his contract was suspended for incapacity, then a marriage described as a “fusional relationship”.
A happy childhood?
A discreet personality emerges. “A bad kid for his mother-in-law,” slips the investigator. A withdrawn child who sneaks his punches. “For the father, invited to the bar as a witness, David R.” lacked nothing “, but he admits not” to have been cuddly “with his son. The latter claims to have been punished with a belt. The father denies.
“He says he lacked affection,” says the investigator. He says he stole to get noticed. The child’s journey is not a quiet river. At the age of two and a half, he was abandoned by his mother “who no longer wants to see him again”, then taken in by his father and his mother-in-law. “At 7, he felt rejected after the arrival of his half-sister, Vanessa,” adds the investigator. At the same time, David R. claims to have been touched by the goddaughter of his mother-in-law. “A lie”, according to the family. “Can we say he had a happy childhood? », Asks the judge. “No,” replies the investigator. Even if he lacked nothing, materially. “
Confrontation with the family
His half-sister is angry with him. “He had a family, children. My dad and mom did a lot of things for him. He did not know how to control his impulses. I don’t think he will ever get there. He must end his life in prison, ”underlines Vanessa, bursting into tears. When she learned of Angélique’s death in the media, she was shocked. “She looked like my daughter,” she admits.
Double face ? Manipulator? David R. could not resist the confrontation with his father, whose “strict upbringing” he referred to during questioning. “He did some bullshit. I have nothing more to say. To kill a little girl, that does not pass, asserts, immediately, the father, with the bar. Immediate response from David R., in tears: “Sorry I messed up your name, daddy!” “. And the dialogue to engage. “Didn’t she have the right to live?” His father asks him. “Yes. I am a monster. “