Toulouse: the “champion of destruction” who had 27 cars in the Saint-Michel parking lot receives two years in prison
A young homeless man, eaten away by alcohol consumption, had broken the windows or windshields with fire extinguishers of 47 vehicles parked in the Saint-Michel car park in Toulouse. He had taken the opportunity to chipper what was lying around in the cabin. He receives two years in prison.
He arrives in the box reserved for prisoners, his face swollen. A few days ago at the Seysses remand center, this 20-year-old boy adopted by a French Ukrainian in an orphanage, at the age of five, was beaten up. Guards found him unconscious in the exercise yard. When he arrived at the prison, in the “new arrivals” area, this homeless man had been attacked with a fork by a fellow prisoner. This Tuesday, August 2, he appeared before the Toulouse Criminal Court for having spent his nerves on a large forty vehicles in the Saint-Michel car park which adjoins the courthouse. He had informed his sister of his act by SMS.
By way of introduction, he had written this sentence with delirious contours: “I am the champion of destruction”. It must be said that this young man who lives in a tent has a rather mind-blowing consumption of alcohol. “If I had enough money, I drank about 5 liters a day. On the day of the events, I only remember very partially what happened. I was totally drunk”, he confides to the judges in a structured speech supposed to glimpse real intelligence. In rage, on June 2, he smashed the windshields or windows of cars of all models, from the gleaming German sedan to the small city cars in the third basement, using a fire extinguisher. He took the opportunity to steal some trinkets and a credit card to make some contactless payments.
“I aroused the jealousy of my colleagues”
On the origin of this fit of rage, the defendant with a psychopathological profile according to the psychiatric expert who examined him, does not extend. On the other hand, he is quite verbose when it comes to commenting on his professional setbacks within a famous sign specializing in DIY. “I aroused the jealousy of my colleagues because I had more energy than them, this is one of the reasons why I was fired”, he says to the magistrates, thereby showing his pronounced taste for victimization. The prosecutor recalls that he is a repeat offender for having committed the same acts a short year ago: “At the time, he had damaged four vehicles. Despite this first sanction, there was no questioning, this time it has changed scale. The penal response must be adapted.” The prosecutor requires 18 months in prison.
Me Aliénor Boulanger, the young man’s lawyer, enters the scene. She recalls in particular the extremely painful past of her client, raised by an alcoholic adoptive mother. His argument did not have the desired effect. The judges went beyond the prosecutor’s requisitions by sentencing the defendant to two years in prison and ordering his continued detention.