Debeauvais trial in Amiens: triple murder on Rue Maberly, "it was for fun"
Jérôme Debeauvais, 52, is being tried in Amiens for the murder of his partner, their 3-year-old son and his sister-in-law in April 2022. The accused described the acts as "fun".
Jérôme Debeauvais before the Somme court of assizes for a triple family homicide
The main courtroom of the Somme court of assizes had not hosted such a large audience since the Bardon trial in 2019, according to courrier-picard.fr. Jérôme Debeauvais, 52, is appearing until Thursday for the murders of his partner Jennifer, 26, their son Eliam, 3, and his sister-in-law Amelia, 26, committed between 8 and 13 April 2022 at 82 Rue Maberly in Amiens. He is also being prosecuted for the rape of the two young women.
A reading of the charge sheet that chills the courtroom
After the drawing of jurors, the presiding judge summarised the case. The strangling of Jennifer, the suffocation of little Eliam with a cushion, the unlawful confinement of Amelia — naked, so terrified she urinated herself, subjected to a sexual act established by DNA analysis — and then her execution by a knife blow to the jugular: the facts imposed themselves in their brutality despite the administrative dryness of the text.
Amelia had been lured to the apartment by a text message sent on 11 April at 4:44 p.m.: "Great marvellous news, could you drop by this evening?" The civil party's lawyer, Me Daquo, sees this as proof of premeditation. When questioned about these facts, Debeauvais stated that it was "for fun".
"I am the worst of bastards"
Faced with the reading of the accusation order, the accused displayed a remarkable coldness. "It's terrible, I didn't see it like that. I worked hard to recover some memory but there, what you're saying, it's terrible. It sounds like I committed a collective lynching," he declared. Later, he added: "If I listen to everything that's been said for the last while, I am the worst of bastards." The courtroom reacted with a murmur of agreement.
Debeauvais maintains that he killed Jennifer following a dispute over custody of his daughter, born of a previous relationship, after a sexual intercourse which he describes as "conventional" and consensual. This version is contradicted by the array of items found in the bedroom — handcuffs, whip, oil, dildo. He claims that Jennifer insulted him during this altercation, a fact that cannot be verified.
The unanswered question: Eliam and Amelia
Presiding judge Damulot noted that the femicide, which occurred during a fit of anger, could arguably be "understood, if not excused". But the murder of little Eliam and that of Amelia? Jérôme Debeauvais provided no explanation.
After the murders, the accused sent text messages from the two women's phones to make it appear they were alive, thus delaying a report to the police. Jennifer's line manager, employed in a company in the energy sector, said she found these messages "strange" — riddled with errors, whereas her employee never made any. Jennifer had obtained a promotion two weeks before her death. "She was afraid to tell her partner about it," her colleagues recalled.
A hypothesis emerged as witness testimony continued: could Debeauvais, described as a man who had failed, have poorly accepted the success of Jennifer and Amelia, nicknamed "the sunny one"? When they met in 2017, Jennifer was a waitress and Jérôme ran a bar in Saint-Leu, an establishment which would eventually catch fire — he was convicted of insurance fraud.
A childhood marked by abandonment and ill-treatment
The examination of the accused's childhood, on the morning of the first hearing, caused the courtroom to shudder for the first time. Born of an adulterous relationship, Debeauvais was abandoned at birth. His father committed suicide shortly after. His mother never brought him back to her new household so as not to upset her husband. She testified: "I had no place to live, I had nothing for him." Me Houria Zanovello, defence counsel, challenged her: "Agreed at birth, but afterwards? Why didn't you go and get him before you had two more?"
The child grew up in care homes and foster families, in conditions described as abusive. His stepfather allegedly humiliated him, particularly because of persistent nocturnal bed-wetting until the age of 14.
Crime scene photographs petrify the courtroom
The day concluded with the projection, on a giant screen, of photographs taken by police in the apartment on Rue Maberly. A naked and bruised body lying on a bed. A corpse curled up and bloodstained on the bathroom floor. A little boy in pyjamas in his bed, surrounded by toys, his face in the process of decomposition.
The courtroom remained petrified. The hearing was adjourned.
Source: Google News LU FR