On her hospital bed, a little before 1 a.m., Sandra Helleputte gives the police a chilling story. The 40-year-old has a swollen face, her body covered in bruises. On June 11, 2014, she was assaulted by her companion, Hocine Hamoudi, while she was in her car, in a parking lot, in Croix (Nord). He notably hit him on the arm with a screwdriver. The reason ? She had just told him that she no longer wanted to be forced to prostitute herself for him in old Lille.
This man, whom she met in 2011, has not always been violent with her. At the time, she worked as a “bar hostess” in Belgium: Sandra sold alcohol and her body. In 2012, he followed her when she crossed the border and moved to northern France. The blows started to rain down in February 2014, more and more often. Sandra even cut her long brown hair so he wouldn’t pull it when he beat her. And her eldest son had to leave home because he couldn’t bear to see his mother with bruises anymore. Hocine Hamoudi reigns terror and frightens the young man, whom he forces to sell cannabis.
“He threatened everyone and she was beaten”
Fearing reprisals, Sandra hesitates that night to file a complaint. This mother of four children is finally convinced by the police. A few weeks later, however, she returns to the Roubaix police station and reconsiders her statements. Surprisingly, she maintains that she lied and blamed her boyfriend for revenge because he cheated on her. The agents do not seek to find out more, and the procedure is closed without further action by the Lille prosecutor’s office. If they had pushed the investigations, they would have discovered his ordeal, lived under the physical and psychological influence of this man already well known to justice for acts of theft and violence with a weapon.
“Every time she tried to file a complaint or find refuge with her family, he threatened everyone and she was beaten up,” says Me Blandine Lejeune, lawyer for the victim’s family. “We cannot deny that the situation has evolved,” she continues. Today, we would have deepened the reasons why she withdrew her complaint, it attracts the attention of the police. And there are ways, like the grave danger telephone, that didn’t exist at the time. This does not mean that we could not avoid the drama that was to come. He should have been arrested from the first violence. »
Harassment on the victim
Subsequently, the police went to Sandra Helleputte’s home at least three times because he insulted her, threatened her, or refused to leave. During one of these interventions, on April 16, 2015, officials asked Hocine Hamoudi to leave the premises and leave Sandra alone. What he does. But an hour later, she shows up at the police station covered in blood. After they left, he returned to his home and threw a bicycle through the window, which injured him.
A trial took place for these facts six weeks later, on June 11, 2015. “He was sentenced to six months in prison. But she was already dead”, breathes Me Lejeune. Indeed, on May 1, 2015, Sandra’s naked body was found in his apartment by his son. Tufts of hair torn out, broken tooth, anal lesions, fractures of the nose, tibia, two wrists, ribs, sternum… She has been massacred.
Hocine Hamoudi was arrested the next day. In front of the investigators, he explains that he was “slightly confused” with the victim on the day of the incident. He admits having slapped her because she threatened him with a knife and hitting him with a chair leg. But he claims she inflicted her other injuries on herself with a broken cup and tore her hair screaming that she was ugly. He adds that she had slipped on water and coffee, which could explain her various fractures. Hocine Hamoudi denies in any case any criminal intent and any sexual assault. Explanations that the investigating judge has a hard time believing. On May 4, 2015, the man was indicted for spousal murder and remanded in custody.
other violence
Six months after the events, Hocine Hamoudi’s lawyer raises a procedural defect. The file transmitted to its defenders was poorly digitized and incomplete. Consequence: the Court of Cassation orders his release in November 2016. But his judicial review is short-lived. On August 23, 2018, he appeared before the Lille court for hitting and forcing his new partner into prostitution. Blows, burns, bites… He is sentenced to four years in prison and placed under warrant of deposit. The sentence will be reduced to three years on appeal. In November 2019, he received an additional eight months in prison for having scalded his fellow prisoner. The Lille sentence enforcement judge however released him on April 3, 2020, a decision justified by the state of health emergency linked to the Covid-19 epidemic. Two days after his release, a resident of Ronchin that he was importuning files a complaint against him.
Eight years after the death of Sandra, this unemployed 35-year-old man is on trial this week before the Assize Court of the North, in Douai, for rape and murder of a spouse. He faces life imprisonment. His lawyer, Me Damien Legrand, did not wish to speak before the hearing. The victim’s family expects to live “a very painful moment”, confides their lawyer, adding that they are “a little reassured” at the idea of knowing that they will not “cross him free” in the court halls. Indeed, Hocine Hamoudi was again arrested and placed in pre-trial detention in September 2021: he is accused by a former companion of rape and violence.