Isabelle survived her husband’s gun attack. However, she benefited from a protection order which prohibited her from approaching her. In video, she and her lawyer pass a strong message: the institutions did not protect her.
This is a particularly chilling testimony shared by the media Loopsider on May 1, 2021. Isabelle, mother of three children, has lived constantly in fear since her break-up with her spouse. Faced with violence and threats from the latter, she had filed a complaint nearly three times in six days. On January 28, 2021, the man was taken into police custody after the first complaint and saw his rifle and rifle seized. However, they returned to him on his release and he will use one of the two weapons on the day of the tragedy, February 22, 2021.
The day before the incident, Isabelle called the police station because she saw her husband near the family home even though he was prohibited from approaching her. The police will not come. The protection order seems nowhere to be found on their side. An administrative error denounced by Maud Vian, Isabelle’s lawyer.
On the day of the assault, the mother leaves her home and sees her husband, gun in hand, in front of her. By reflex, she leaves the keys on her front door to protect her daughter, inside the house. This one will hear all of the drama without the possibility of going out to help her mother. The assailant begins by shooting Isabelleau buttocks, which made him fall to the ground. Touched, she still manages to recover the pepper spray that she keeps on her in case of danger. She gets up and throws herself on him. Unfortunately, the anti-aggression bomb is not working. It was then that her ex-partner shoots her in the genitals. She collapses. He leaves the stage.
Severely injured, but alive, Isabelle will learn the next day, on her hospital bed, of the death of her executioner. The latter committed suicide shortly after the attack. A relief for the one who believes that since then, “The hunt is over. The fear is over.”
“We can say that it is a feminicide, explains Isabelle facing the camera. My private parts have been reconstructed. I am missing some. I have an ostomy, […] scars […] lead in the body. “ The mother had to go through nine surgeries and soon a tenth to try to rebuild her intestinal system so that she could live without an ostomy.
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Against domestic violence, a failing system
“She did it all”, asserts his lawyer. Isabelle spoke, filed a complaint, went to a lawyer and received a protection order. But it was not enough. “Electronic bracelets or seriously dangerous phones give hope. But in reality, [même] if I had had the phone, he would have had time to shoot everything the same twice “, explains the victim. His lawyer is currently considering filing a complaint against the state following the lack of reaction from the police station the day before the attack. How is it that the protection order has not been shared between the services of the family court judge and the police? For the lawyer, the system should be rethought by instituting a “entity dedicated to this kind of files which require human time”.
Although gender and sexual violence have been declared a great cause of the five-year term by President Macron, Maud Vivian believes that it is above all a matter of communication. She underlines: “I don’t see any changes! Nothing! On the contrary, I think it’s even worse!” Instead of talking about various facts, the lawyer would like us to look more at these “very deep social facts.” In France, in 2021, already 35 women died under the blows of their spouse or ex-spouse, according to the Feminicides France collective.
Dan Hastings
Every day, aufeminin’s editorial staff addresses millions of women and supports them in all stages of their lives. The aufeminin editorial staff is made up of committed editors and …