“I apologize from the bottom of my heart, Madam,” the defendant said. The 41-year-old man speaks directly to the president, as soon as he arrives in the box of the Thionville criminal court. He is shaking. He suffers from psychiatric disorders. And his heroin use doesn’t help.
On July 16, shortly after midnight in Thionville, he terrorized a motorist who was quietly returning home. He climbs into his car, stopped at a red light, quai Marchal, just before the Allied bridge, a stone’s throw from the courthouse. The driver has no time to react. He says the intruder pulled out a switchblade knife, a 15cm blade that he placed on his thigh. The victim has no choice but to obey. His passenger asks him to drive him to Metz-Borny, in the heart of the city, where he collects a dose of heroin before being driven home.
Once alone, the shocked motorist alerted the police and immediately went to the police station, around 2:30 a.m., to file a complaint. He identifies his attacker, already known to the authorities. The latter will be arrested ten days later by a crew from the BAC in Guénange. Same story as the previous one: the man climbed into the car of a stranger, in front of the town hall in Thionville. He wouldn’t have been threatening this time. But the driver was not leading off, impressed by the imposing stature of his passenger.
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Jail closed
“It’s over, I swear to you, I won’t hitchhike again!” “Launches the defendant at the bar. He denies the knife threats of which the plaintiff accuses him. “I recognize that I got into his vehicle without permission,” he concedes. “I asked him to take me to Metz, he said yes. On the way, we discussed, we laughed, ”he explains. “So why did the driver call the police right after you left?” “Asks the president of the court. This Wednesday, the victim made the trip but she preferred to stay behind the door of the courtroom.
“Please, don’t put me back in prison,” implores the defendant, judged in immediate appearance. His lawyer, Me La Schiazza, describes a man overtaken by his demons, pleads an altered discernment at the time of the facts. The court ruled out any adjustments to the sentence and sentenced the attacking hitchhiker to five months in prison. He orders his immediate detention and revokes three months of suspended prison sentence in 2021 for old acts of violence and kidnapping.
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