Three defendants were sentenced on Tuesday by the Angers Criminal Court to suspended sentences ranging from 18 months to three years in prison for the collapse of a balcony which killed four people in 2016 in this city.
Two other defendants, including the architect of the building Frdric Rolland, 66, were released by the court, causing sighs and tears in the benches of the civil parties.
It was against Mr. Rolland that the heaviest sentence, four years in prison, two of which were closed, had been requested, at the beginning of March, by the public prosecutor of Angers Eric Bouillard.
The breaches of the architect’s professional obligations, although partially established by elements of the procedure, have no certain causal link with the collapse of the balcony, explained the president of the court, during the reading of the judgment.
Three years in prison, including 18 months suspended, had also been requested against the works manager, ric Morand, 53, who was also released. He had explained to the helm that the method of construction of the balconies had been modified to meet the construction deadlines.
The manager of the structural work company, Patrick Bonnel, 73, was given a three-year suspended prison sentence and a fine of nearly 25,000 euros. At the helm, he had recognized a serious and inexcusable fault, saying he was ashamed of the work of his teams.
The prosecution had requested three years’ imprisonment, including one year suspended, against him.
The site manager Jean-Marcel Moreau, 63, and the representative of the Apave verification office, Andr de Douvan, 84, were both given an 18-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of 1,000 euros, sentences in line with the requisitions.
On the evening of the tragedy, there were 18 students, aged in their twenties, talking on this balcony of the Le Surcouf residence, in the center of Angers, when it suddenly fell into a void.
In the rubble, the firefighters had discovered the bodies of Lou, 18, Antoine, 21, Benjamin, 23, and Baptiste, 25. Fourteen other victims were hospitalized.