Bordeaux, France:
A French court on Friday sentenced a man to 30 years in prison for killing his former partner, who had repeatedly warned authorities that she was in danger after years of abuse.
The 31-year-old victim, Sandra Pla, was found in a pool of blood at her home in Bordeaux, southwest France, in July 2021 with around 50 stab wounds, particularly to her neck and face.
Prosecutors had sought the 30-year sentence in a case that shocked the country, where on average a woman is killed every three days.
Pla had several times reported her former partner as being abusive and harassing her, even writing a letter to President Emmanuel Macron to seek help.
Mickael Falou, 40, had admitted to killing his former partner.
But during the trial that began Wednesday, he denied premeditated murder and said he could not remember the moment he stabbed her.
Prosecutor Veronique Compan argued, however, that “he intended to go and kill Sandra Pla. He waited for her, he surprised her, he terrified her, and he killed her.”
Falou remained impassive as his conviction was announced.
“Justice has been done,” Pla’s mother, Annie Libourel, said after the verdict.
But “nothing will bring me back my daughter.”.
‘Should I just wait?’
In 2018, a year after the birth of their daughter, Pla began to confide in those close to her that Falou was being abusive.
She left him in January 2021 and then obtained full custody of their daughter in May 2021.
She had for months complained that the father of her child was harassing her.
Compan said Pla’s murder was a clear case of femicide-the killing of a woman because of her gender, often by a partner or ex-partner-and stressed the importance of fighting “against this plague.”.
Three days before her death, Falou had been arrested and then released under judicial supervision, with an injunction to stay away from Pla.
The prosecutor said that the fact the murder occurred while Falou was supposedly being monitored looked “terrible” for the judiciary.
Elsa Crozatier, the lawyer who has been representing the mother, stepfather, and brother of the victim, said this was a predictable femicide.
She read an extract from a letter the victim wrote to the French president: “His rage is growing and increasingly threatening… Should I just wait around for something bad to happen to me?”
‘Desperate’
One of Falou’s lawyers, Elena Badescu, argued, however, that her client had not killed Pla “because she was a woman” and that he was not possessive or jealous.
Several witnesses on Wednesday recounted how terrified the victim was.
Her parents had for a few months even moved in with her, and she had installed a doorbell with a security camera.
An expert on Thursday described Falou as being “incapable of empathy” and had been trying to portray himself as a victim.
Falou said he had broken into Pla’s house at around 4:30 am on the day he killed her and hidden until she returned after taking their daughter to school.
“I was totally desperate. I was obsessed with showing that they (her family) had made up false evidence” to get custody, he told the court.
In his closing statement, Falou said he was “haunted” by having killed his ex-partner, but between two sobs, he said he felt “misunderstood.”.
He also testified that when hiding outside Pla’s home, he did not remember seeing leave a man who had spent the night with her-though investigators said he surely must have seen.
“Amnesiac when it suits him,” said Daniel Del Risco, lawyer for the victim’s father, adding that Falou “wanted to totally obliterate her.”.
In 2023, 96 women were killed by their partners or ex-partners in France, a drop of 19 percent from 2022, according to the latest figures from the interior ministry.
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