A foiled attempt at feminicide. A 57-year-old woman was violently attacked on leaving work on Friday around 6 p.m. in Perpignan. As she returned to her vehicle, she was attacked by a man who stabbed her several times. She owed her survival only to the courage of the caretaker of the underground car park, who intervened to control the attacker.
The gendarmes, deployed since the end of 2022 to reinforce the national police in the prefecture of Pyrénées-Orientales, quickly intervened. They arrested the man suspected of having carried out the blows. It would be the former companion of the victim. “The facts are within the framework of a romantic relationship of a few weeks during the summer of 2022”, specifies the public prosecutor of Perpignan, Jean-Daniel Cavaillé. “Since the separation in September 2022, the man had been harassing the victim”.
A judgment for harassment was expected in June
He allegedly sent threats to her phone the same day. He had been the subject of a complaint and was to be tried for these acts of harassment in June. He is also already known to the courts for acts of domestic violence, committed in the past in the north of France and in Spain. He was charged with a warrant for attempted murder.
The victim was transferred to the emergency room of the University Hospital of Perpignan. She suffers from a fracture and wounds in the neck and arms but her life is not in danger. In addition to these injuries requiring a temporary interruption of work for four days, she is very marked psychologically by this attack.
The CCI closed in “support” and “protest”
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Pyrénées-Orientales (CCIPO), where she is employed, decided to remain closed on Monday. “In protest against this unspeakable act and in support of our colleague, the services of the CCIPO, in Perpignan, will be closed to the public, all day”, specifies the consular chamber on social networks.