They never met and probably never would have. Fatiha, 28, lived in Amiens and worked in a hotel in the north of the city. Catherine, 54, lived more than 600 kilometers away, in Saint-Laurent d’Arce precisely, a small village north of Bordeaux. Both were killed last Friday by their former companions. At the white weapon for one like the other. Both had lodged a complaint against their executioner. In August for Fatiha. Her ex had since been banned from approaching her. He was however seen on several occasions near his place of work. It is, moreover, there, in the middle of the street, in front of the hotel, that he gave her the fatal stab wound before attempting to commit suicide.
Catherine, she had lodged a complaint twice with the gendarmerie since her separation in mid-January. The first time, on February 5, for “violence without incapacity”, the second, two weeks later, for “dissemination of images infringing on the intimacy of his private life”. Complaints of which the Libourne prosecutor’s office claims to have never been aware. The procedure in this area is however clear: any complaint of domestic violence must immediately be transmitted to the prosecutor in order to hear the suspect quickly and to take protective measures if necessary. However, in this case, the defendant, aged 62, who committed suicide after his act, was far from being unknown to the courts: he had been sentenced in 2006 to twenty years’ imprisonment for attempted murder. assassination on his ex-spouse.
Evaluation grid
If for the murder of Catherine, an administrative investigation was opened to try to understand why the complaints remained without follow-up, these tragedies are not isolated. According to the latest figures from the ministry dating from 2021, 17% of victims of feminicides had filed a complaint. Concretely, this represents 25 women out of the 122 killed that year. Among them, only three were the subject of a protection device: two benefited from a protection order, and the companion of the third was under judicial control. “This clearly shows that today we still come up against a poor assessment of the danger. Why are some women still being told to come back and file a complaint the next day? And even when they denounce the facts of which they are victims, nothing happens, ”despairs Sandrine Bouchait, head of the National Union of Femicide Families and whose own sister was killed by her companion in 2017. .
In November 2019, a danger assessment grid, made up of 23 questions, was put in place to help police and gendarmes better take warning signals into account. Are you a victim of harassment? Does your partner control your daily life? Does he own firearms? “It’s a very good tool, but you have to be aware that women who push the door of a police station or a gendarmerie are not always aware of the danger they run, notes Me Anne Bouillon, lawyer specializing in the question. We must support them and offer them a space of understanding. And the advice to cite the example of these women who answer almost tit for tat in the negative when asked if they have been threatened with death. “When we dig, when we ask them questions, some answer you “ah but yes, he threatened to stick a knife in my stomach”, or “he told me that he would kill me if I did this where”. »
Progress, but…
Since 2019 and the Grenelle on violence against women, professionals have nevertheless noted real progress in the reception of victims. Many police officers and gendarmes have been trained in the collection of this word and in the detection of so-called “weak” signals, the victims are systematically directed towards filing a complaint and not a daybook. While a few years ago, Anne Bouillon still regularly saw women arriving in her office who had been refused a complaint, this is becoming marginal. “It is changing, of course, but depending on where you file a complaint, the person you come across, your file will be treated differently. And that is not possible, ”laments Sandrine Bouchait.
But then how to explain that in 2021, of the 25 victims of feminicide who filed a complaint, only three were under protection? Admittedly, since the Grenelle, the progress has been notable. The roll-out of the grave danger telephone, which makes it possible to contact the police in one click and whose effectiveness has been proven many times, has, for example, progressed sharply in two years: according to the Chancellery, the number of telephones allocated has increased eightfold between 2020 and 2022. At the end of December 2018, just over 3,556 women were equipped with them. Similarly, the Ministry of Justice points out that 123 jurisdictions have implemented an emergency channel to deal with cases of domestic violence. “When this question is a priority for the prosecution, then it infuses the entire criminal chain, and the answers are more effective”, notes Me Anne Bouillon.
“To obtain a protection order, you need a double condition”
However, the lawyer deplores too limited use of the tools available to justice to protect women. And to cite the case of protection orders. According to the Ministry of Justice, the number of requests jumped 89% between 2017 and 2021, from 3,131 to 5,921. At the same time, the duration of the procedure fell from nearly 42 days to six. On the other hand, the acceptance rate – total or partial – has progressed little: in three years, it has gained 6 points to stand at 67.8% in 2021, according to the Ministry of Justice. “To obtain a protection order, there must be two conditions: that the violence is probable and that it endangers. It is this second point which is very complicated. We are often told that this violence is too old, isolated…”, laments Anne Bouillon.
“To protect women, there is no need to invent new tools, we must start by making better use of what we have”, abounds Sandrine Bouchait. And to cite the case of anti-reconciliation bracelets, a device that came into force at the end of 2020 and directly inspired by what is being done in Spain, a leading country in the fight against domestic violence. According to the Ministry of Justice, a thousand bracelets are active today, but most of those equipped with them were after a conviction. However, the law provides for a provision to equip violent men before their trial, but the agreement of the latter must be obtained. “Do we ask the women who die every year if they agreed? »