Valerie Bacot, who shot her husband Daniel Polette dead in , was sentenced to a four-year term with three years suspended. But she walked free from the court in Saone-et-Loire in eastern France as she had already served a year in pre-trial detention. The verdict was met with thunderous applause in the courtroom, and some of Bacot's friends and family burst into tears. Announcing the jury's decision, judge Celine Therme said the court had recognised the "terror" that Bacot had endured for years.
Prosecutors had told the court that the year-old should not go back to prison, as she was "very clearly a victim" of her tyrannical husband. He was imprisoned after the initial rape but continued to abuse Bacot after he was released, and she became pregnant when she was Bacot's alcoholic mother threw her out of the house and she was forced to live with Polette, who later coerced her into sex work.
Bacot, who confessed to shooting year-old Polette and hiding his body in a forest with the help of two of her children, published a book last month about her experiences, "Everyone Knew". Her case has become a feminist cause celebre in France at a time when more women are breaking their silence on sexual assault. State prosecutor Eric Jallet earlier told the court: "Valerie Bacot should not have taken the life of the person who was terrorising her.
A visibly fatigued Bacot had collapsed upon hearing the prosecutor's request, prompting an intervention of emergency personnel and a brief suspension of the hearing.
More than , people signed a petition demanding that Bacot, who had risked life in prison, be cleared. Polette became increasingly violent, attacking her with a hammer at one point, and forced her to work as a prostitute for truck drivers in the back of a van.
