“The court is not the best place to do couple therapy”, recalls the prosecutor of Thionville, Brice Partouche. The magistrate wants to put an end to the raw and intimate exchanges which fueled the debates during the trial held on Tuesday before the Thionville Criminal Court. He recalls that justice is seized for a specific offense: a sexual assault committed in May 2017. At that time, the couple lived in Meuse. He is in crisis.
The woman is pregnant with a second child but there is talk of separation. She says she dozed off on the couch and when she woke up, he had his hand under her sweater and was caressing her breasts. “It was very clear, I no longer wanted him to touch me,” she asserts, facing the magistrates, her voice tight. The man, curled up, leaning on the bar of the court, gives a completely different version of the scene. “She was in bed, I stroked her arm then the top of her breast, she woke up. […] In my memory, the mother of my children was in a nightie. He trembles, he defends himself against any aggression and evokes “a gesture of affection”.
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Express consent
“She was not consenting”, slice the victim’s lawyer, Me Wurth. She insists on the vulnerability of her client, taken by surprise. The young woman took four years to file a complaint. A delay that she explains by her discomfort and the desire to protect the children.
“It is an act with a sexual connotation. At this precise moment, Madame was not in a condition to consent, she did not express her consent. Monsieur was not asked. He dispensed with it, ”adds the prosecutor. He is asking for a two-month suspended prison sentence for “this isolated act”.
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Decision rendered on March 22
But the couple’s sexuality was more widely questioned throughout the hearing. The ex-companion reveals that she for a long time complied with practices that she did not appreciate. She even speaks of constraint. “She did it to please me,” concedes the defendant. “But we were discussing it,” he continues. “Sometimes for months I couldn’t touch her, I respected that. »
The victim jumps, comments, disputes these remarks. She claims through her lawyer a ban on contact and a treatment order for her 38-year-old ex-spouse, now living in Yutz.
The defense, it, storm. Me Amadori denounces an empty file, depicts an “extremely violent” divorce procedure. He retains “a tender gesture on the arm” and pleads the release of his client, who has never been convicted.
The court will deliver its decision on March 22.
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