Femicide in Montauban: Life imprisonment sought for a man accused of torture

A life sentence was requested Monday before the Tarn-et-Garonne Assize Court for a 41-year-old man on trial for the particularly violent murder of his wife in 2023. The accused, an electrician and heating engineer, admitted to all the charges at the start of the trial, while claiming he lost control at the time of the crime. The events took place in Lamothe-Capdeville, where the victim, a 36-year-old mother of five, was raped, stabbed, and then strangled in circumstances described as extremely brutal.

During his closing arguments, the prosecutor emphasized the exceptional violence of the scene, describing a level of brutality rarely seen. According to the prosecution, the man acted with such intensity that it constituted acts of torture and barbarity, justifying the maximum sentence with a 22-year minimum term. After the events, the accused left the family home in the middle of the night, leaving their children to discover their mother's body the following morning—a lasting trauma at the heart of the legal proceedings.

A tense trial surrounding the defendant's responsibility

The trial was also marked by questions surrounding the defendant's mental state. He claims to suffer from partial amnesia regarding certain actions, including the rape and the use of a knife. Medical experts, however, ruled out the possibility of a neurological crisis or a psychiatric disorder that would have impaired his judgment, concluding that he was fully criminally responsible. The hypothesis that the act was triggered by marital jealousy was raised but not clearly established, as the defendant continued to deny it.

The civil parties emphasized the irreversible consequences of this crime for the couple's five daughters, now aged 7 to 17. Their lawyer described the total destruction of the family and denounced the defendant's perceived coldness during the hearing. In addition to a life sentence, the prosecution requested post-release supervision with mandatory treatment, a ban on possessing firearms, and the deprivation of civic and family rights. The verdict is expected in a highly emotional atmosphere, at the end of a trial marked by the gravity of the crime and the suffering of the family.