From our special correspondent in Grenoble
“He was made to be cruel. » In the courtroom, the sentence still resonates, sounding the death knell for possible explanations. And annihilating any possibility of obtaining any key to understanding. Questioned at length about the personality of the accused, whom he examined five times, the psychologist Raphaël Loiselot is categorical: Julien*, tried before the Isère assizes for having raped and tortured three of his former partners by imposing on them including having sex with canines, is “truly sadistic and perverse”. “He doesn’t play a role. He’s like that. »
The man, aged 34, never suffered abuse in his childhood, growing up in a so-called normal family. True, his parents separated when he was seven years old. His mother died two years later in a fall while riding a horse. But “not all people who have lost a parent or experienced a divorce become serial animal killers” or torturers, notes the expert. And to press: “Sometimes, the evil is there. In Julien, evil is within him. Not much can explain it.”
“Cruelty in addiction”
The boy simply has “cruelty in addiction”. No difference between the “human race that he despises” and the animals that he likes to penetrate before killing them. “He uses his sex as a weapon of destruction, suffering and death in order to reduce the other to nothing,” analyzes the psychologist, specifying that his “murderous impulses are deeply rooted in him”.
As surprising as it may seem, the person concerned does not suffer from “any mental illness” which could abolish his discernment, formally attests the psychiatrist François Renault. Understand that Julien is of sound mind, “even if he is psychologically disturbed”. The problem comes from a “structural developmental defect”, that is to say the way he was constructed as a child, diagnoses the expert, interviewed by videoconference. A child who is “lonely, out of step with others”, “unsuitable for school” and who cannot stand “frustration”. From there, violence will take on more and more space over the years. And evolve in all forms.
“I don’t see how it can get better in 50 years”
“He is as much psychopath, as pervert, as narcissist. This is what gives it its dangerousness,” summarizes Raphaël Loiselot. So, can the accused “develop favorably?” », asks the president of the court. “In my twenty-five year career, I have rarely seen these three factors so exacerbated in an individual. They are all in the red zone and I am very, very pessimistic, replies the psychologist. I don’t see how in 50 years it can be better than it is today. ” The stakes are high. On Friday, the jurors will have to agree on the sentence to be pronounced. And on possible life imprisonment.
Could strict monitoring help control these impulses? Here again, François Renault is hardly optimistic about the future. “We’re not talking about quitting cigarettes, it’s much more complex than that and more serious. We are not in a process of pressing the “on” or “off” button. » Already hospitalized for five years in a psychiatric clinic, the accused continued to kill animals on each of his outings, recalls the expert. “The problem being structural with him, we are not going to transform him again. We will not be able to change it, even if a follow-up will perhaps one day make it possible to soften certain aspects…. But it’s not yet today! »
Julien was clear. His place is in prison, he insists. He doesn’t ask to get out. This even prevents him from repeating his actions. “There is nothing to dispute about the facts of which I am accused. For me, the challenge of this trial was to understand the precise nature that led me to commit them,” explains the rotund young man in a calm voice, lowering his head. And to conclude for the victims: “I hope that they can build a future and that it will help them move forward. »
*The first name has been changed