French woman Valerie Bacot (40) risks being sentenced to life in prison for shooting and killing her husband in 2016. She claims the murder of Daniel Polette, who was also her former stepfather, happened in self-defense after being abused by him for over 20 years.
– I killed him so that he would not kill us, she writes in her book Tout Le Monde Savait “Everyone knew”, which depicts her life with her husband Daniel Polette and you four children, according to CNN.
The trial started on Monday this week in the French city of Chalon-sur-Saône. The case is expected to last five days.
Must have been raped for the first time as a 12-year-old
The story of Bacot and Polette dates back to the 90’s. Then Polette, who was then in love with Bacot’s mother, allegedly raped Bacot for the first time, according to Bacot. Bacot was then 12 years old.
Polette was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for raping a minor in 1996. When he was finally released, he continued to rape Bacot.
When Bacot was 17 years old, she became pregnant and gave birth to their first of a total of four children. Despite this, the abuse did not stop.
– One morning in the dining room, he started yelling at me loudly because I had not cleaned away our child’s toys properly. Suddenly he hit me hard, without warning, says Bacot in the book, according to CNN.
The other three children were born over the next 18 years. At the same time, according to Bacot, Polette has continued to rape her and forced her into prostitution, especially among trailer drivers.
Got help from the kids to bury the body
After Bacot killed Polette by shooting him in the neck with Polette’s own gun in 2016, she was helped by two of her children to bury the body. In 2016, the two children were sentenced to six months probation for helping to hide the body.
During the investigation of the murder, the children told that their mother had been abused by Polette for as long as they could remember.
The case against Valerie Bacot gets a lot of attention in France. Photo: NTB
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Claims self-defense, risks life
The prosecutor in the case believes that Bacot killed Polette on purpose. Bacot’s defender believes that this is wrong and that Bacot acted in self-defense.
Bacot himself claims that Polette threatened to kill her and the children if she left him.
Bacot risks being sentenced to life in prison for premeditated murder.
In January, a signature campaign was launched demanding that Bacot not be imprisoned for the murder. So far, more than 580,000 people have signed the petition.
In a similar case where another French woman, Jacqueline Sauvage, was sentenced to ten years in prison for killing her husband, the perpetrator in 2016 was pardoned by then-President Francois Hollande. Sauvage had shot her husband three times in the back with a hunting rifle in 2012.
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