They should have been three to testify. But one of them, Gabrielle S., was excused. This ex-companion of Jean-Marc Reiser did not want, as during the trial at first instance, to detail again his relations with the man who is now being prosecuted for the murder of Sophie Le Tan in 2018.
On Tuesday, two former concubines awakened some bad memories before the Colmar Court of Appeal (Haut-Rhin). “The doctors say that I have a post-traumatic syndrome”, admitted Virginie L. “I think that he feels superior to others, and that his great pleasure is to manipulate others, like a god who would pull the strings. He is a very intelligent person, it is a terrible waste to use his intelligence to harm women”.
Intrusive, impulsive and stingy
This is also how she summed up their month-long relationship in 1990, when they were both students at the Regional Institute of Administration (IRA) in Bastia. Quickly, the “eager and helpful” companion turns into an intrusive, impulsive, tight-fisted partner. “We were shopping, he made me pass in front of me to pay,” she recalls.
Things escalate when she decides to break up. “He threw chairs in the apartment, in a terrible rage”. The following days, while he refuses the separation, she has to barricade herself at home. “He was banging on the doors, the shutters”. She takes refuge with a cousin. She finds no help when she asks the police. “He’s a very loving man,” they tell him, “so we’ll leave it at that.” Same story with the leadership of the IRA. “They made me realize that I was almost lucky that a man loved me so much.”
“He wrote that I was going to die”
The altercations multiply, she receives explicit threatening letters. “He wrote that I was going to die in Corsica, that there would be blood everywhere. A few days later, my car was vandalized, my wheels loose. She kept this pain inside her for almost thirty years. “I felt like I was resisting. I cracked last year, at the assizes (during the trial at first instance). Now I am followed by a psychiatrist. »
Invited to react to these remarks, Jean-Marc Reiser, stoic in his box, declares that there would be a lot to complain about, that he too had his tires punctured in Bastia. “My car was registered on the continent, it was common at the time”. “You get lost in the details,” replies the president, Christine Schlumberger.
“Emotionally, he is five years old”
Anne M., last companion of Jean-Marc Reiser, testifies in her turn. Were they still a couple when Sophie Le Tan disappeared on September 7, 2018? The answer is by no means obvious. “This gentleman, I wanted to leave him, he led me the possible life,” she explains. “Ten days before, I tell him that I want to leave him. Only this gentleman, you can tell him 150 times, you don’t leave him. Emotionally, he is five years old.
She too experienced the beatings, “happened quite quickly”. “The punches are given in such a way that you do not risk dying, but it calms you down and you are silent”, says this lady of 1m60, with a physique that contrasts with the imposing look of the accused. “I felt like he had experience in that.”
“It’s completely absurd”
She is questioned about an appointment she had with Jean-Marc Reiser on the day of the tragedy, but which the latter canceled several days in advance, after a telephone conversation with his future victim, which could give substance to premeditation thesis. “He canceled the Friday night meeting because he had meetings in the morning, there is a lack of logic. I tell myself that he is going to see a mistress, ”confides the witness to the court.
“It’s completely absurd,” defends the accused, who maintains that he simply had a party, organized by the online group “We’re going out!” “. The question is not settled, but the court must return to it Thursday during the depositions of the investigators.