At the helm of the Gard Assize Court, the accused delivers a completely improbable version to explain the disappearance of the fifties of Roquemaure, which he would have attended and forced by several armed men. The verdict is expected this Saturday, June 27.
“And there he tells me with what was done to her, she may not move.” For almost two hours, in front of an assize court of the Gard Amahie, Fabrice Poncet recounts in great detail, this Friday, June 27, the way in which the abduction and death of his partner took place, Marie-Pascale Sidolle, kidnapped on April 14, 2019, in the parking lot of the Avignon hospital.
A very complicated scenario, of which he would have been the constrained and forced witness, and in which several people would have participated, a prostitute, his uncle Paul and his friend Christophe, both gypsies and resumed of justice, as well as a Guinean cleaning agent whose no one understood the interest of the deposition, the day before, at the mark of the witnesses.
A complete change of position in September 2023
Because after having denied from April 2019 to July 2022, the date of his incarceration, any involvement in the disappearance of Marie-Pascale, Fabrice Poncet changed completely in position, in September 2023, by telling an unprecedented version of this sinister night, leading to the baby on the disappearance of his partner. A story that has at least one merit: to connect all the suspicious points accumulated by the investigators, in this judicial file where the indices are rare.
While he was drunk this Saturday evening, he is tackled leaving his favorite bar a young gypsy. “ESt-This you want to make love with me, you pay me 40 €, I have a baby to feed, she insisted, well, why not, I am alone, I will be of service “ he said, saying that he had withdrawn money several times on the way.
On arrival at home, Paul, the uncle of the girl, asks her what he is doing there, makes her consume cocaine, makes him talk about his life. Fabrice Poncet tells him about his setbacks with Marie-Pascale, who no longer wanted him.
“Would it hurt you if something happened to your wife? “Asks him the man. Win a passage in a disco, other meetings, other threats. In the morning, when he wants to warn Marie-Pascale, he arrives too late in the hospital and sees her out by car from the parking lot. He himself is caught by the famous Guinean, who takes them in spinning.
Driving the car, with Marie-Pascale inanimate at her side
Train several stages are linked, where he ends up being driving the car of Marie-Pascale, while she is inanimate in the passenger seat. “With what we did to her, she may not move” would have told him Paul, lying on the rear seat, with a weapon.
“I understood that she was dead, she had blood flowing from her nose” he continues. According to him, the body was subsequently loaded, wrapped in a carpet, in a van, towards an unknown destination.
“PWhat do these completely new declarations in 2023? “ asks the president. “To relieve myself, I wanted to tell the truth, before I was afraid. Paul and Christophe, I recognized them in prison.“
“She is removed at 7 a.m. when she dies?” The accused: “It’s in the same morning.”
“Why these people you don’t know decide to kill a woman they don’t know “ rebels an assessor. “Why do these bank withdrawals do not appear on your statement?” continues Me Eydoux, who represents his daughter, Stéphanie.
A fairy tale that turns into a nightmare
“When I brought my father back from England and that he got back with my mother, I thought I was a fairy tale, I was super happy to find this absent father for so long, and this dream quickly turned into a nightmare “ Advocates Stéphanie, who says and repeats her conviction that her father is guilty of the crime.
“I know” she launches, looking at him. He is not in the head. “But yes, I know!”
“Fabrice was addicted to my sister “ continues Marie-Pierre Sidolle. “It’s not a companion, he’s a destructive, and my sister paid the high price “.
This long account of the evening and the morning of the crime, which seems incredible and delusional, could not be corroborated by the investigators. Does it have some elements of truth, however? Me Charlène Neveu-Sanchez, in defense of the accused, attempts a counterfeit.
“Paul and Christophe were both in your walk. How is it that when memories come back to you, they are fed by the elements you lived at that time? “
Fabrice Poncet does not grasp the pole and sinks. “It comes back to me at that time, as a song can remind you of something.”
The lawyer throws in the towel. The Advocate General requires 30 years, and suggests a 20 -year security sentence. “In this file, there is no reasonable doubt. C‘is a premeditated crime, executed coldly, brutally and under sordid conditions. It is left like a waste in the middle of the garrigue, abandoned to animals, to rot in the sun “.
“It is a monstrous sentence, but for whom, a monster? The monsters do not exist, this man is one of your fellows, no more no less” Strongly replica Me Charlène Neveu-Sanchez, at the beginning of the evening an acquittal pleading which promised to be long, with Me Marie-Blanche Tapiéro-Sauvat. “The defense task is heavy”. Verdict this Saturday.
