The Cassandra affair or, as it was called in Nancy, in 2019, “the trial of the torturers of Verdun”, is not just a crime: the kidnapping of a vulnerable young girl (because of mild mental deficiency). ), in an apartment in Verdun in March 2015, initially, with the sole aim of extorting money from him, but which, at the instigation of the group, led six young people, for ten days, to be the perpetrators or witnesses of torture and daily rape on Cassandra’s person. Rejected on appeal by the Moselle Assize Court, this case also opens a window on social misery.
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In the box of the accused as on the benches of the civil party, there are unloved or abandoned children, placed very young in foster families or in institutes. All have been victims of sexual abuse or violence. That’s no excuse, but how do you push it straight? After battered mothers, emotional deficiencies, beatings and abuse often result in chaotic schooling that does not help and difficulties in entering the labor market. Let us note all the same that, if life did not give more gifts to Cassandra than to Lætitia Dupont, Manuel Pasquereau and Caroline Denisart, the three defendants of this appeal trial, the young victim always tried to transcend his condition.
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3 questions to Me Lagarrigue, lawyer at the Nancy bar and counsel for Cassandra, the civil party.
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The weight of intimate conviction
In recent days, the testimonies and interventions during the debates have brought to light several things. The simplicity of mind of some, which makes them ideal prey, easy to impress and terrorize, or puppets who do not realize that they are influenced and manipulated. The imbalance of relations in the romantic relationship between Dupont and Denisart, the latter claiming to have been his wife’s deadpan, a habit established by Dupont in all his previous relationships. The ultraviolence of Lætitia Dupont, who ends up dragging everyone into her dance, always going further in the most atrocious tortures and inciting rape by the other members of the gang. The lies or fortuitous omissions of Manuel Pasquereau which leave one perplexed. Thursday and Friday will be devoted to the pleadings of the defense lawyers (Me Rumbach, Me Nodee and Me Mangeot), the civil party (Me Lagarrigue) and the requisitions of Advocate General Jean-Yves Goueffon.
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