2023-08-24 17:33:00
It is a sadly classic case that was tried on Thursday before the Brussels vacation court. It was one of those cases of domestic violence, typical of the “cycle of violence”, as the president recalled, which, she said, could very well have ended up before an assize court.
The victim was not present. But his mother had insisted on coming to testify. “I think we came very close to disaster. He drinks and when he drinks, he becomes very aggressive. He no longer controls himself”, says this woman who introduces herself as the mother of the defendant’s companion, whom we will call Michaël.
“I fear for my daughter’s safety. We see enough things on TV”, she continued insisting on the therapeutic follow-up which should be imposed on the defendant, before pointing out that, in her daughter’s apartment, there is no longer an internal door. which is intact because of the defendant’s outbursts of anger. And that he always contacts his daughter by phone.
The president is surprised. “Why isn’t your daughter here?” she asks. “She didn’t tell me. I think she’s scared”, she got as a response. And to clarify that his daughter is aware of his presence in court and agrees.
The shots date from June 24. Since then, Michaël has moved. He claims that it is his ex-girlfriend, who will be named Anne, recently made contact with him and not the other way around. He had been with her for three years. They got together almost the moment he lost his job. And, since then, he is still unemployed.
Confessions, but…
In court, he expresses himself very calmly and chooses his words. Asked by the president, he describes the relationship with Anne as “conflictual, passionate, with a lot of empathy but quite anxiety-provoking”.
He recognizes the blows, objectified by a medical certificate and photos: strangulation, blows to the head with a plastic bottle. “I agree with what I am accused of but I recontextualise: it has been three years since we were immersed in an unhealthy situation”.
The murderer refuses an inheritance so as not to compensate the family of the victim, everything goes to his children: “It is attackable in civil matters”
He explains that, that evening, he had gone out with a friend and had been drinking. But he denies having a drinking problem: “It’s only for social purposes,” he says. According to him, Anne also drank. “On both sides, we didn’t pull each other up,” he says.
In the cycle of violence, the perpetrator will try to justify his actions, he blames the victim. At the same time, the victim blames himself and ends up believing himself responsible for the situation.
“You are not here to put the victim on trial”, corrects the president. But Michaël persists in the face of the judge who asks him for his reading of the events: “There is a whole context, with ins and outs”.
The cycle of violence
This does not satisfy the judge, for whom, we are here “in a cycle of violence, with an unbalanced situation: alcohol, one who works and the other does not, different personalities”.
”There is a passage to the act. And the author justifies himself and shows up as a victim. The victim feels guilty and feels responsible for the situation. Then there is a honeymoon. We promise each other mountains and wonders. And the cycle resumes. It was not the first time”, deciphers the judge.
Michaël disagrees: “It’s more complex than that. I had to deal with his behavior without calling the police”. The judge cuts him off: “And you settled it with blows”. Michaël concedes it but corrects: “I am disciplined from the start”, he says calmly. But he doesn’t give up. To the judge who tells him that he broke a lot at her house, he says that it was Anne who started it. “But she is at home”, rectifies the judge.
It is up to the prosecutor to request. It sets the frame. Michaël went out with friends. He comes home soaked. Anne reproaches him and the blows rain down. Anne will notably be grabbed by the throat and Michaël will throw her head against a wall. Anne’s mother has warned the neighbours, who will also be beaten before the police arrive. It recommends probationary measures, such as training in the management of violence. Michaël’s defense does not oppose it. Judgment August 30.
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