“No professional breach noted” – Release

The inspection mission on the murder of Stéphanie, on the night of May 23 to 24, submitted its conclusions this Friday. Stabbed to death in the middle of the street when she had filed a complaint against her husband, her murder had aroused great emotion and consternation. –

She had been stabbed in the middle of the street. Five stab wounds, received on the night of May 23 to 24, close to the police station of the town of Hayange (Moselle), closed at that time. Stéphanie was 22 years old, she was the mother of a 4 year old girl. She had filed a complaint against her companion a few months before his death. This one had benefited from a modification of sentence: he had been released from prison a month before the facts and had returned to live in the marital home, under an electronic bracelet. The death of the young woman had sparked a wave of indignation such that the government had announced the establishment of an inspection mission to shed light on possible dysfunctions that led to her death. Led by the General Inspectorate of Justice and that of the Administration, the mission comes from make public its conclusions this Friday.

“No professional misconduct can be noted in the decisions taken before the murder, all the interveners having mobilized themselves normally within the field of their competences”, write the authors. Move around, nothing to see? Not quite. As was already the case in the case of the death of Chahinez in Mérignac (Gironde) at the beginning of May, the inspection mission also noted the need for better communication between the different actors: “The seriousness of the facts, however, underlines the absolute need to coordinate the action of local actors at each stage of the treatment of domestic violence.” Even if, observe the authors of the report, “The health situation in 2020 also contributed to deteriorating communication between the services”.

Poorly defined domestic violence

Thus, while Stéphanie’s spouse was arrested in November 2020 by the anti-crime brigade for traffic offenses, “No crossing has been made between the different information circuits”, and no research was done at that time to see if it was the subject of complaints or handrails. But that was indeed the case. In a relationship since 2015, Stéphanie and her spouse had been the subject of numerous interventions by the police at their home or on the public highway. “Repeated incidents” had taken place between 2018 and 2020, often “Violent arguments”. “However, each time calm returns, one or the other leaving the apartment”, observes the report. Stéphanie even opposes the arrest of her companion, one day when he is alcoholic and aggressive towards the police. “The multiplication of interventions for repeated incidents at the couple’s home, the absence of observed injuries, the ambivalence of [Stéphanie] which intervenes several times in favor of [son conjoint] have installed the image of a conflictual couple but without a signal of imminent danger ”, analyze the authors. Was there physical violence? On this point, the various accounts of these interventions are contradictory: on June 7, 2020, Stéphanie indicates that her partner threw stones in her back. Five months later, on November 17, 2020, the police summed up another intervention as follows: “Couple dispute. No threat, no violence. ”

However, on several occasions, threats have been mentioned in the past. On June 21, 2018, the police wrote for example: “The mother explains to us that for some time she has suffered violence and threats from her partner. Her companion threatened to take the child away from him and take him to Kosovo and send his family to him to kill him. ” In January 2020, Stéphanie deposits a handrail at the Thionville police station for insults uttered by her companion. She indicates that she has not been subjected to physical violence and does not want to file a complaint. Even if she refuses to be put in touch with the social worker at the police station, she will still contact her several times between March 2020 and April 2021, to try to offer her help, which Stéphanie declines.

“I’ll kill you if you go to the cops”

On November 3, 2020, Stéphanie this time lodged a complaint with the Thionville police station. It evokes insults and death threats, transcribed in these terms: “I’ll kill you if you go to the cops.” She does not mention physical violence and says that she does not feel imminent danger. The agent who takes the complaint, “Experienced, had followed the online training dedicated to domestic violence. It considered that this complaint evoking threats did not fall within the treatment reserved for complaints for domestic violence ”, notes the mission. Three days later, the complaint was forwarded to the Hayange police office, where Stéphanie and her partner lived, “For the conduct of investigations”. The complaint is not transmitted to the prosecution. “The Moselle judicial services, never informed of violence within the couple, were unable to mobilize the system to fight against domestic violence in force”, note the authors of the report, who identify several possible explanations. Among them: the verbal and psychological violence mentioned by Stéphanie were not understood as domestic violence, because they did not appear expressly in the recommendations issued by the Ministry of the Interior until very recently. Another explanation: “The staffing difficulties in the judicial branch of the Thionville police station and a fortiori of the Hayange police station leading to a large stock of unprocessed procedures.”

An investigation before any adjustment of sentence

The mission also recommends that before any adjustment of the sentence, in the event of domestic violence, a “Investigation, whatever the family context, to […] ensure the reality of the host’s agreement ”. In the case of Stéphanie, only a letter from her, dated January, signified her agreement for the return to the home of her spouse, imprisoned since November for traffic offenses, and who benefited from a modification of sentence in the form of an outing under an electronic bracelet, a month before the death of the young woman. Did she write it under duress or influence? Was she aware of what that could involve? In any case, his spouse’s request for a modification of his sentence will be rejected for the first time, then finally accepted on April 23 by the penalty enforcement chamber. “The magistrates specified that they had never been aware of the slightest relational difficulty between him and his companion, the latter declaring on the contrary wanting to go out in order to be able to help him.”

There remains a big dark point: the functioning of the bracelet. On May 23, the day of Stéphanie’s murder, around noon, her husband called the integration and probation services to report that her electronic bracelet had been damaged by her little girl. An appointment is set for Tuesday for the replacement of the device. As it continues to operate, however, no specific investigation is carried out. Later that night, he will manage to break it, without giving rise to an alarm at the monitoring center. What happened ? The investigation has yet to determine it, the bracelet having been seized.

Since Stéphanie’s death, feedback has taken place between the various actors involved locally (police, justice, social workers, etc.), such as recommended by the government after each feminicide since the Grenelle. Domestic violence has been better defined in the instructions to the police, to include threats, psychological violence and harassment. A reminder was also sent to police stations and gendarmeries specifying that handrails should be banned, as well as a recommendation to think about completing a personalized assessment sheet of the danger for each victim. “Beyond [des] essential improvements, the mission considers that the multiplication of the respective directives of the Ministries of the Interior and of Justice risks complicating the action of the local services by leaving an ambiguity in the behavior to be followed ”, finally note the authors, who invite the ministries to unify their recommendations.

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