His “condition is now irreparable”. Barely 23 years old, Salomé (1) is already completely “destroyed”, underlines her lawyer Alice Berthet. So the coming week of debates promises to be “particularly trying” for her. From this Monday, the Isère Assize Court will look into the case of Julien (1), the young woman’s former boyfriend. A 34-year-old man prosecuted for “ten offenses, each more disgusting than the last,” says the civil parties. “It sweeps away all the horrors of criminal law,” summarizes lawyer François-Xavier Kozan. Namely, rapes preceded or accompanied by acts of torture or barbarity on his former partners as well as on animals. But also the possession of around a hundred thousand child pornography files or videos sometimes featuring children and animals.
“This trial will be primarily focused on the victims, there is no reason to doubt their words, especially since my client has admitted all of the facts with which he is accused,” announces Maxence Pascal from the outset , the defendant’s lawyer. Julien knew very young that he had sexual urges towards animals. Animals that he decapitated or killed after committing the act.
Tortured rats
Before the investigators, he revealed that he felt the need “to have the notion of life or death over an animal”. The rats, he admits, he hangs them on a hook before disemboweling them, sometimes sticks them on a canvas to cut them up alive, throws them in a pot of boiling water to make them suffer, burns them with a lighter or cut the legs. He talks about his sexual relations with dogs, bought on Leboncoin for this purpose, and how he ties their legs to prevent them from fleeing or strangles them with a rope. It also confirms relationships with horses, ponies or goats. He hides nothing from all this from his partners. Starting with Justin (1) met in 2012 on social networks.
At this time, Julien is about to be hospitalized in a clinic in the Paris region to treat his urges. When he was released, five years later, he found refuge with his partner, an “introverted”, “shy” man, in conflict with his mother who did not accept his homosexuality. At first “considerate and protective”, the boy will quickly “change his behavior”. And terrorize his lover who he forces to watch him torture rats. The rest will only be a very long nightmare. On two occasions, Julien forced his partner to be sodomized by a dog or to penetrate him, filming the scene to force him to undergo other equally unhealthy sexual acts. Then, he threatens to have proof if he ever thinks about filing a complaint.
“The question of consent no longer exists”
“It’s completely unimaginable. It’s absolutely terrifying,” comments Guillaume Laverdure, Justin’s lawyer. “Understand that my client was in a state of astonishment. In a case like this, the question of consent no longer exists. He was unable to react. » Until the day, when the young man, locked in “a relationship of psychological control”, manages to break it off. And to file a complaint a few years later. “Today, he is recovering, he is working. He is in therapy. He is surrounded and approaches the trial with a certain serenity,” confesses the lawyer.
Which will not be the case for young Salomé. Julien had also confided his sexual urges to her. But still a minor at the time of their meeting on social networks, the Grenobloise wanted to “help and support him”, convinced that her boyfriend would conquer his demons. And then, she felt indebted. He had reached out to her at a “very difficult time in her life” when she was only thinking about ending her life. But here again, the trap will close. From sadomasochistic relationships, the lover will gradually demand increasingly trashy practices, until they invite a female dog into their bed. “Paralyzed”, the young woman feels “dirty” but lets herself go. She “lives in fear” of seeing Julien “commit further abuse to animals if she refuses him”.
“It was very complicated for her to denounce the facts. From the start of the procedure, the investigators had difficulty believing her. They were as stunned as she was,” comments her lawyer Alice Berthet, hoping that the trial will provide “keys to understanding”. Because until then, the psychiatric experts, who examined the accused, have not been able to establish a diagnosis.
A “major criminological danger”
“He does not suffer from any proven mental pathology,” underlines one of them. But of a “severe personality disorder” with “sadistic and sexual perversions”. He is animated by a feeling of “omnipotence” and “an absence of empathy”. “It presents a major criminological danger,” he argues in his report. Characteristics which are “regularly found in serial killers”, observes another expert. And to wonder: “Julien assures that he killed animals with less and less pleasure. The question that then arises is: How far will he go and who will he turn to to find this pleasure again? “. According to the psychiatrist “no therapeutic approach seems appropriate”.
When he left hospital in 2017, the accused did not benefit from any medical follow-up. Two years later, however, he asked “in vain” to be taken into care again. “He presented himself at the hospital to discuss the repetition of his actions. He asked for help but was turned away. It’s appalling. When we present a profile like this, we should not be fired but we should benefit from very strict monitoring,” underlines his lawyer who intends to raise this question during the debates.
During one of his hearings before the investigators, the person concerned, aware of his deviances, also confided that he had explained to the doctors that he found himself in an impasse: “I told them that I should not be free because I won’t stop. Unless some magical psychiatrist tells me how to be happy without it, I have no reason to change or have a place in normal society.” He faces life imprisonment. The verdict is expected on November 10.
(1) First names have been changed.