“When I talk about blows, I don’t know what you translate. They are slaps, hands open. Four. It was not small slaps, it is obvious. But that means no punches, no objects, not stored against a wall. But all that came after a course … “
Bertrand Cantat pronounces these words on August 21, 2003 before the Lithuanian magistrates, in the presence of the French investigating judge Nathalie Turquey and police officers from the criminal brigade who came specially from Paris. He then laid the basics of his defense: blows were brought down by him, certainly, but following a scene of violence for which he would not be the sole responsible.
During his first hearing, a fortnight earlier, he seemed to minimize his role in the tragedy even more. Faced with a Lithuanian judge, Cantat mimics gestures he presents as simple slaps, without trying to disguise them completely, but by considerably attenuating their power. He describes an argument that would have degenerated, failing to recognize the extreme brutality he showed that night.
During the six hours of cumulative hearing which we have learned, he will end up admitting, in tears, the gravity of his acts and their irremediable character. “I still think that it is my fault, of course, we fought, of course I hit her, I assume the fact that she died because of me, but I do not assume it inside me. »»
An affectionate sms of Samuel Benchetrit, the ex of Marie, triggers the fury of Cantat
His account, however, seems to be watered down in relation to the fatal scene which he himself “replayed” during the reconstruction four days after the drama, whose photos we publish. It reveals a degree of violence inflicted on Marie Trintignant who seems superior to what he says. We see Bertrand Cantat mimic a punch directed towards a foam mannequin representing his victim. He said she first hit him, which would have split her lip. The singer also said that he “did not bother it against a wall”.
However, we see distinctly, during the reconstruction, that he is perfectly aware that the head of his partner, under the strength of his slaps, struck the chambrance of the bathroom door. Once right and once on the left, at least. He also claimed: “I pulled it to the living room to throw it into the sofa. We got our feet in the thread of the lamp that broke. Neither were calmed. A version in contradiction with the images of the reconstruction, which show the final position of Marie Trintignant, her head against a radiator.
A unleashing of violence
How to explain such an outburst of violence? Bertrand Cantat will give his version. He says he discovered on Saturday July 26, a fatal day, an SMS sent to Marie Trintignant by Samuel Benchetrit, his ex-companion. An affectionate formula, at the end of the message, will put the leader of Noir desire out of him: “Thank you, my little Janis”. A reference by the director to her film “Janis and John”, in which she played. These words would have provoked in Cantat a feeling of injustice: “There, I felt a great imbalance between the relationship of Mary and Samuel and what I had just done to Kristina. Something was not going, was not fair. On the one hand, we have the right to send a tender word, on the other, we work at Bazooka. The beginnings of a strategy which will consist in postponing the fault of the confrontation on Marie Trintignant.
That evening, after an end of filming pot where they would have consumed “not bad” of alcohol, Bertrand and Marie went to a member of the team, Andrius Leliuga, before returning to their hotel. This is where the situation would have degenerated, according to the singer’s testimony: “I could not help but rest the question that burned my lips. […] I was insistent, but not upset. The tone rose very quickly to Marie who continued not to answer me, to say to me “well will see her, your wife”. »»
A strangely omitted scene
The rest, Cantat tells it sobbing: “She grabbed me and I had to grab it at the same time. There, she pushed me because she was in a fury where I was not yet. Unfortunately, I went to that afterwards. She pushed me to the opposite corner of the bathroom door and I came across my back on the door of the door. A scene which he strangely omitted to describe during the reconstruction.
“From there, I saw red. I saw red, but I got into black anger. I got up, Marie continued to say to me “Go see your wife”, I had never seen her like that. Marie was in the entrance to the bathroom and from there, I put great slaps from her. And not small slaps, I can’t lie, I had rings with my fingers and off you go, let’s go. I had a thick African ring like that on my middle finger and then another on my annular. Large slaps released like that [en aller-retour] Four, five or six I don’t know. »»
“The lesions observed were of extreme violence, incompatible with the hypothesis of a simple argument”
Dr. Stéphane Delajoux, a neurosurgeon who was urgently sent to Vilnius to Marie Trintignant, had immediately drawn an unequivocal medical assessment: “The lesions observed were those of extreme violence, incompatible with the hypothesis of a simple dispute. A major trauma, with very heavy neurological consequences, ”he said, notably stressing the massive brain edema that had plunged Marie Trintignant into a coma. After several heavy operations aimed at reducing intracranial pressure, it had been repatriated to France in a desperate state. Before succumbing to his injuries on August 1, 2003 at the Hartmann Clinic in Neuilly-sur-Seine.
During his trial in Vilnius in 2004, constrained by the overwhelming elements which accumulated against him, – in particular the medical relationships and the testimony of Marie’s brother, Vincent Trintignant, who came on the spot in the early morning, who had described a scene of chaos, her sister found inanimate, her swollen face, hematomas visible on the skull and the neck I have the deep guilt of having killed the person without whom I am unable to live. »»
The judge who had released the singer and denounced “the media court” admits: “I was wrong”
He had tried to explain his gesture by a state of drunkenness and an uncontrollable anger. But these late confessions, far from his first statements, had sowed doubt about his sincerity. Especially since several relatives of Marie Trintignant, including her mother Nadine, recalled that Cantat had contacted Vincent, the actress’s brother, to warn him of the seriousness of the situation, before even calling for help.
On March 29, 2004, he was sentenced by the Vilnius court to eight years in prison for “assault and injuries that led to death without intention to give it”. A judgment considered to be mild by many, with regard to the gravity of the facts.
On October 16, 2007, after having served a little more than four years of his initial sentence, most of which in France, near Toulouse, he obtained parole. Philippe Laflaquière, the judge who granted it, will denounce the “all-powerful media court” parasitizing the rehabilitation of the singer. The magistrate now recognizes his errors, on “the perception of psychology” of Cantat and “the grip” he exercised. “I was wrong,” he admits. The suicide of Krisztina Rady, in 2010, had “upset” it. Today, he salutes the reopening of the investigation, believing that “the truth must emerge”.