The affair had stirred public opinion. One assures not to be “a monster”, the other wants to “pay his debt”: the two accused of the fatal attack on a bus driver in Bayonne in 2020 expressed their regrets Friday morning, at the opening of their trial before the Pyrénées-Atlantiques Assize Court.
On July 5, 2020, Philippe Monguillot was beaten by two passengers who refused to wear a health mask, after headbutting one of them. Left brain dead next to his vehicle, he died in hospital after five days in a coma.
“This story haunts me”
At the opening of the proceedings, during his first speech, the main accused Wyssem Manai, wearing black-rimmed glasses and a white shirt, declared: “I am not a monster, I did not want to do that to Philippe Monguillot, this story haunts me. » Head bowed, he assured several times that he was “a normal person”.
“A trial is a moment of truth, it is not the time to blow on the embers. I do legal defense, not media hype,” declared his lawyer, Me Thierry Sagardoytho, before entering the room.
His co-accused, Maxime Guyennon, also 25 years old, white polo shirt and shoulder-length hair, had been on parole for less than three months at the time of the events. He declared that he wanted to “pay his debt to the victim’s family, even if it is impossible” and “to wash away the shame done” to his own family.
“Exemplary sentences” requested
From 7:30 a.m., before the opening of the proceedings, a dozen people gathered on the steps of the Pau courthouse, “in support of Véronique Monguillot and her daughters”, to “demand exemplary sentences”.
For Me Alexandre Novion, lawyer for the victim’s widow and three daughters, Philippe Monguillot “has become a symbol, and his wife with him, of simple people who experienced a tragedy which can affect anyone”.
A third man, aged 43, is also on trial for having provided assistance to the two accused, in this case by housing them in his apartment, thus allowing them to escape searches and arrest.