“You will never go out”. This morning of January 20, 2019, Cécilia *, pinned to the bed, tries to catch her breath. Her attacker has just removed the pillow that he stuck to her face, but he immediately grips her neck with both hands. The young woman in her twenties “feels like leaving”. It is to the intervention of the police, a few seconds later, that she owes her life. The argument, started a few hours earlier with her boyfriend Nicolas *, turned into a nightmare. For three months, she has been dating this streamer (online video game player), known as “Mr WaynZ”, who enjoys a certain notoriety in the community. Originally from Tours, she came to spend the weekend at his home in the 19th arrondissement of Paris. But the 30-something is extremely jealous and possessive.
When she wakes up that morning, the young woman cannot find her phone. She quickly understands that her companion has hidden it. The tone rises between the two, Cecilia wants to leave the apartment, but the man blocks her way. She starts screaming, he puts his arm around her neck, puts his hand on her mouth and throws her violently on the ground. The man ends up letting her go, retrieves a kitchen knife and tells her “to stick it with it”, she tells the investigators. Terrorized, the young woman strikes him, triggering the fury of his companion. He grabs her by the hair, drags her to the bed and sexually assaults her, before strangling her. She manages to extricate herself, rushes to the balcony and calls for help. Miraculously, two police officers from the 2nd district of the judicial police (DPJ), who were passing by, heard his cries. They are the ones who put an end to his ordeal, a few minutes later, by banging on the door of the apartment. Nicolas is immediately arrested. Cecilia, she is found terrified, “traces of strangulation” on the neck. She is taken care of by the emergency services and lodges a complaint the same evening.
Almost identical scenes
At the end of Nicolas’ police custody, an investigation is opened against him for attempted homicide, kidnapping and sexual assault. However, justice does not see fit to place him in pre-trial detention. He comes out free, under judicial control. He will not be remanded in custody until ten months later, in October 2019.
Because over the hearings, the investigators collect four other testimonies from former companions of the streamer, who accuse him of similar facts. Since then, three of them have become civil parties to the trial which opens this Tuesday, January 31, before the Paris Assize Court. Nicolas, 34 years old today, must be tried for attempted homicide, rape and violence.
Because the facts described by the three other complainants are also incredibly violent. During her hearing by the investigators, Iriane, the second complainant and mother of her child, recounts having been beaten and raped several times by Nicolas. She describes scenes of great brutality, mixing headbutts, slaps and acts of sodomy, especially during her pregnancy. And each time she considers leaving him, the man threatens her with death, a knife placed under her throat.
Violence during pregnancy
The story of Fiona, the third plaintiff and former companion of Nicolas, is not so different. Insults, kicks and punches, slaps, tripping, kidnapping… The young woman, who shared the life of the streamer from 2015 to 2018, describes a horrifying camera. In September 2018, when he almost manages to choke her, knees pressed to his ribcage and hands tight around his neck, Fiona manages to struggle and runs to take refuge in the kitchen. But her companion catches her and strangles her again. In a scene almost similar to that described by Cécilia, Fiona grabs a knife and sticks it in her arm “to make him stop”, she will explain to the investigators. The cohabitants are both prosecuted for reciprocal violence, but only the young woman is placed in police custody. In March 2019, they were sentenced to the same sentence, a four-month suspended prison sentence.
Oriane, she met Nicolas, on social networks in 2017. She is 17 years old and he is 29. Quickly, he asks her to manage his Twitch account and the graph of his YouTube channel. As the months pass, their relationship becomes more intimate. In front of the investigators, the young woman evokes several consented reports, but also rapes, including forced fellatios, at the home of the player. But the streamer, who has returned to Fiona’s arms, is putting a point in their relationship. “Fragile at that time”, Oriane made a dozen suicide attempts.
“Deep Introspection”
Nicolas, on the other hand, is waiting to “explain himself in detail on the facts of which he is accused and above all to be heard”, confides his lawyers, Mes Raphaëlle Rischmann and Guillaume Halbique of the Marcus firm. If the streamer recognizes the facts of kidnapping, in particular of “having locked the door and kept the key in his pocket during arguments”, his advice considers that “this is very far from what one can imagine last this word sequestration”. On the other hand, the man formally denies the accusations of attempted homicide, “which is clearly not characterized”, and those of rape.
However, Cécilia, she, “saw herself dying”, estimates Me Medhi Bouzaïda, her lawyer, who affirms that her client “got out only because she called for help and that the police have heard “. “He says it wasn’t really confinement, it was to explain himself to her. But the four victims still report the same facts of kidnapping, ”continues the lawyer. “When asked about the acts of violence, he says it was not a strangulation, but an armbar. The border is still thin, ”he adds.
Nicolas’ lawyers assure him, the thirty-year-old, who is being followed in detention, has entered “into a deep introspection”. “This follow-up allowed him to do in-depth work on his flaws, engendered by his terrible and chaotic childhood. He is someone who questions himself and builds himself every day, ”they add. The Paris Assize Court will have ten days to judge Nicolas.
*All names have been changed.