Fugitive from Tarbes sentenced to eight months in prison after courthouse escape in March
A 33-year-old serviceman jumped from the dock and smashed a door at Tarbes courthouse in March. He was sentenced on Tuesday to eight additional months in prison.
Eight months in prison for serviceman who escaped Tarbes courthouse
According to Google News FR — Crime (fr), a 33-year-old parachute soldier was sentenced on Tuesday, 25 August to eight months in prison by the Tarbes judicial court, five months after escaping from that same courtroom. He must also repay €10,200 to the State's judicial officer for damages caused during his escape.
On 23 March, the man had just been sentenced to sixteen months in prison for domestic violence. At the moment when police were about to take him into custody, he scaled the dock from the non-glazed side, ran through the corridors of the courthouse, rushed down the stairs and crashed into a locked glazed door. The door gave way. He took Maréchal-Foch Street and disappeared into the centre of Tarbes. It was 7 p.m. A police officer was injured in the incident.
The hunt lasted nearly three weeks. Investigators used phone records and bank statements to try to trace him. The man was no longer in the Hautes-Pyrénées: he had gone to Brittany, where he had family ties.
Concern grew around his former partner and their children. Maître Stéphanie Balespouey, lawyer representing the children, had raised the alarm at the March hearing. After the escape, she stated: "I am concerned, there is danger," fearing the consequences of this disappearance.
On 12 April, the manhunt ended in Saint-Malo. The surveillance and intervention unit traced his location and proceeded with his arrest. The man attempted once again to flee at the wheel of a vehicle retrieved from his in-laws' home, but he was stopped.
On Tuesday, 25 August, he appeared again before the judges, this time in a fully glazed dock and under escort, after several months in detention. The contrast with the March hearing was striking: whereas he had shown himself to be nonchalant and provocative before taking flight, this time he presented himself calmly, with apologies.
When asked about the reasons for his escape, he explained that he had "lost his footing" when the decision was announced. The fear of not seeing his son again would have led him to act in an "impulsive" manner. "In four months I have had time to think," he said. A psychiatrist, consulted as part of the procedure, concluded that his judgment was impaired at the time of the facts, as the serviceman was suffering from post-traumatic stress.
The public prosecutor had sought a mixed sentence of six months in prison, part of which would be suspended with probation. The court imposed a harsher sentence: eight months in prison without parole. The serviceman, whose contract normally runs until 2031, is moreover awaiting disciplinary decisions from his institution. His lawyer, Maître Nicolas Vignes, had conducted his defence.
When the judgment was announced, the man did not move. He was escorted calmly towards the cells.
Source: Google News FR — Crime (fr)