Charente-Maritime: the compulsive arsonist sentenced to a one-year suspended sentence


1er September, he is caught red-handed. He has just swallowed a wafer of Dafalgan, sprayed his skull with hydroalcoholic gel. “I wanted to immolate myself,” he confides. Finally, it is a handkerchief that he sets on fire and throws over a fence. Result: a burnt tree. This gesture, he has already made it several times before. He recognizes everything. The setting on fire of a pocket protruding from his employer’s container, of leaves in yet another tree, the unbearable urge to ignite this tea towel hung on a garage door, even this tablecloth in the church “but that I immediately took out,” he defends himself. “I don’t know why I was doing this,” he continues to say. I freaked out. I wanted to be seen, I wanted to be challenged. “Why the fire? No answer. “It’s incomprehensible,” breathes the president.

30,000 euros in damages

Prosecutor Clément Incerti notes a paradox. “He wants to attract attention but he runs away. There is no reason to doubt his distress, but he harmed others. In Angoulins, fires went off in all directions. We know it’s voluntary, the neighbors suspect each other. The firefighters even file a complaint because there are too many fires. Never seen. You wanted the attention, you got it, there it is on you. He requires one year’s imprisonment suspended on probation for three years, with the obligation of care, work and compensation for the victims. They are asking, in total, nearly 30,000 euros for moral and material damage. For his ex-brother-in-law who was also his employer, the fire in his garbage cans would have resulted in a brutal operating loss. “The clients have not returned,” says his lawyer.

Without explanation, the civil parties remain unsatisfied, to the point of imagining a form of manipulation. “There is none, argues the defense. He was idle and helpless in the face of this rupture. These suicide attempts are cries for help. He needs help, he needs a long follow-up. It does not represent any danger. I see an evolution, he raises his head. »



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