The 34-year-old man was convicted of raping, assaulting, kidnapping and defrauding several of his spouses.
The Paris Assize Court on Friday sentenced the former gamer “Mr WaynZ” to 18 years of criminal imprisonment for having raped, assaulted, kidnapped and defrauded several of his spouses.
The public prosecutor had requested Thursday 20 years of imprisonment against him.
Real name Yannick Nascimiento, this 34-year-old influential former YouTuber was also on trial for attempted murder of Cécilia (first name changed) on January 20, 2019 in her apartment in the 19th arrondissement, by strangling and suffocating her. It was the cries and calls for help from his victim, with whom he had been in a relationship for three months, which alerted the police.
The court found him guilty of unlawful confinement and willful assault on Cecilia, but not of attempted murder. She also considered that the character of concubine was not characterized.
Four other alleged victims
As the accused unflinchingly welcomed the verdict, Cecilia collapsed. “My client is mute, it is difficult to understand even being denied the status of spouse that the accused himself nevertheless recognized during the proceedings”, reacted his lawyer, Maître Mehdi Bouzaida.
The investigation opened after the events of January 20, 2019 identified four other alleged victims, mostly fragile women encountered in the online gaming bubble where “Mr WaynZ” enjoyed a small reputation, with 220,000 subscribers on YouTube and nearly 100,000 on Twitch.
Three of these women had filed a complaint, denouncing violence, rape or acts of kidnapping and fraud committed between 2007 and 2019.
During the trial, which began on January 31, plaintiffs and witnesses described a funny but impulsive, jealous and dominating gamer in the private sphere.
Yannick Nascimiento, imprisoned since October 2019, put forward as a line of defense his chaotic childhood marked by domestic violence and rape, claiming to have undertaken work on himself and his actions.
“I was a bad person, what I did is serious,” he said before the deliberation. “I apologize to these women. It was not you who did this, it was me. Do not be afraid, you will not see me again”, he added in an oversized and crumpled white shirt .
