A man’s body half charred, tied up and executed by bullets in an underground gallery located under Mont Saint-Clair in Sète: from Monday, the assizes of Hérault judge the enigmatic assassination known as “of the bloody cave “.
Rémy Chesne, a 51-year-old hairdresser, who has been claiming his innocence since the start of the case, must appear before the Assize Court in Montpellier for the kidnapping, kidnapping and murder of Patrick Isoird in 2014. Audrey Louvet , a former mistress of the two men, having confessed to having been used as bait, is accused of complicity.
A body found in a rock cavity
On July 17, 2014, three weeks after the “worrying disappearance” of Patrick Isoird, the body of this 49-year-old Sète hospital worker was discovered in a rocky cavity, not far from the Py cemetery, where the singer and poet Georges Brassens is buried .
The autopsy shows the man was shot twice, one in the head and one in the shoulder, in this isolated place known locally as a meeting place.
The ordeal experienced by the victim then causes great emotion in the Mediterranean port city and its surroundings, and the mysteries of the cave attract the attention of the media.
Trap set
Considered to be the last two people who saw Patrick Isoird alive, Rémy Chesne and Audrey Louvet were questioned in July 2014 and then released before being arrested, indicted and imprisoned in March 2016.
The hairdresser, who faces life imprisonment, has always denied any involvement in this affair. For her part, Audrey Louvet, admitted to having set a trap for the victim by dangling the resumption of their past affair. But she always ensured that she ignored the fatal fate that awaited Mr. Isoird at the bottom of the rock cavity, which is a crucial point of the defense line of his lawyers.
Assassination disguised as suicide
According to investigators, Rémy Chesne would have acted out of revenge after discovering a one-night affair between Patrick Isoird and his own wife Nadège, found hanged at the age of 38 in the garage of the family home in 2009. The family of the The deceased has since argued that it was actually an assassination disguised as suicide.
“The stake of this trial is that Audrey Louvet takes a step closer to the truth for the memory of Patrick Isoird even if this truth is necessarily atrocious for those whom I defend”, explained Me Jean-Marc Darrigade, one of the lawyers of the murdered hospital officer’s family. The lawyer for the civil parties “does not expect much” on the other hand from Mr. Chesne. “I believe he will remain frozen in a position of denial,” he says.
“Defense without surprise”
The main defendant “claims his innocence from the start and he will do the same thing before the Assize Court, it is a defense without surprise”, assured one of his lawyers Me Luc Abratkiewicz. “If Rémy Chesne is referred to the Assize Court, it is simply on the basis of Audrey Louvet’s accusations (…), on the basis of an extremely fragile motive and a few equally fragile elements”, added Mr. Abratkiewicz, deploring that the “other avenues” have not been “explored much”.
Initially scheduled for March 2020, the trial had been postponed due to the first confinement linked to the health crisis caused by the new coronavirus.
On June 11, the Montpellier Court of Appeal released Audrey Louvet under judicial supervision, highlighting an excessive period of preventive detention. But Rémy Chesne, whose lawyers had also called for release for the same reasons, remained in prison.
The verdict is expected on Wednesday January 27.
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