The Advocate General described, before the assizes of the Hérault, this feminicide as “atypical” because the man did not support the crisis of his sick wife and went so far as to kill her.
Eight years in prison were required Friday against Patrice Lenoel, tried for having strangled his wife, alcoholic and bipolar, while she was having a new crisis. An “atypical” feminicide, the act of a “helper” at the end, recognized the Advocate General, before the assizes of Hérault.
“Make no mistake, this is not feminicide as we understand it. But neither is it self-defense, nor an altruistic homicide”, insisted the magistrate “It is a file completely atypical, in which the carer could not bear this crisis and went so far as to kill his wife.”
A couple and their three children under tension
Ana-Paula De Jesus Bernardes and Patrice Lenoel had been married for 42 years, thirty of which were invaded by the wife’s bipolarity and alcoholism. In their house near Montpellier, the couple and their three children lived in permanent tension, punctuated by repeated suicide attempts, a dozen, of the mother. Each time, her husband had rescued her in time.
After yet another crisis, on the evening of June 20, 2019, Patrice Lenoel strangled and asphyxiated his wife, who was found lifeless on the floor of the marital bedroom, her body and face swollen. The accused, now 67, was arrested in the garage, prostrate, sitting in his excrement, a rope with a noose by his side.
At the center of the hearings, the mother occupied almost all the space of the statements. Her overflowing personality, her repeated lovers, her alcoholism, her physical and verbal violence, on her husband and her children, have been told, denounced, by family, friends and even experts.
Children overwhelm their mother more than their father
At the helm, the couple’s three children, all civil parties, described at length the setbacks of their mother, much more than the criminal act of their father.
“We joined as civil parties because we are all victims of this very long history, because we must honor the memory of our mother, and to understand what happened before us”, justified , after having testified at length, one of the two sons, 43 years old.
Lawyer for the civil parties, Maître Rémi Bertrand pleaded, like a tightrope walker, for children who “grew up with monstrous secrets”, but without ever pushing the accused, asking the jurors to “spare this family an additional drama” and to “give Patrice Lenoel a chance”.
The Advocate General reminded him of the context of the murder: “There had been a victory over alcoholism, hypersexuality which had calmed down, projects, progress and a reduction in medication. In this context, in 2019, Paula asked to live. At the time of the facts, she had no desire to die”.
3919: the telephone number for women victims of violence
The “3919”, “Violence Femmes Info”, is the national reference number for women victims of violence (conjugal, sexual, psychological, forced marriages, sexual mutilation, harassment…). It’s free and anonymous. It offers listening, informs and directs towards support and support systems. This number is managed by the National Women’s Solidarity Federation (FNSF).
