A Frenchman accused of fatally stabbing his former partner, who had repeatedly reported his harassment to authorities, is set to stand trial in a case highlighting systemic failures in protecting domestic violence victims.
A Frenchman is set to stand trial on Wednesday accused of fatally stabbing his former partner, who had complained of enduring years of abuse and repeatedly reported him to the authorities over his harassment.
On July 2, , the body of year-old Sandra Pla was found in a pool of blood at her home in the southwestern French city of Bordeaux, where she lived with their four-year-old daughter. A neighbour had heard a woman screaming and alerted police. An autopsy revealed around fifty knife wounds, particularly to Pla's neck and face. Her former partner, Mickael Falou -- who she had left a few months earlier after a year relationship -- was later arrested at his home in the Bordeaux suburb of Merignac.
He was severely intoxicated. She had repeatedly complained to the authorities about the violence and harassment she had endured for years. Pla even petitioned French President Emmanuel Macron and other top officials, warning she was going to end up "like those women who are killed by their husbands", according to lawyer Elsa Crozatier. Crozatier, a lawyer representing Pla's mother and stepfather, said the woman's murder was a clear-cut case of "femicide". In police custody, the man, who was 36 at the time, admitted killing his daughter's mother but said he could not remember when he stabbed her.
He said he had broken into Pla's house at around 4. He told investigators that he had never planned to kill her and insists he has never abused her before. According to Falou, he broke into her home to accuse her of lying to the police, in order to have him stripped of custody of their daughter, about the physical and psychological violence she had reported.
