In a letter sent to the Minister of Justice, the lawyer for the family of Aurélie Langelin, killed by her partner in May 2021, requested an “inspection mission” to reveal police errors in this feminicide. A request refused. The criminal is offended.
Did the police and the justice system fail? This is what Damien Legrand, the lawyer for the family of Aurélie Langelin, this 33-year-old woman who was beaten by her spouse, in Douai, during the night of May 30 to 31, 2021, believes.
To shed light on this feminicide, the criminal lawyer had sent a letter last October to the Keeper of the Seals, Eric Dupond-Moretti, asking him to open an “inspection mission”. A missive also sent to ministers Gérard Darmanin, Marlène Shiappa and Élisabeth Moreno.
The answer ? Negative. An end of inadmissibility which today angers the lawyer. “This is the confirmation of what I suspected, says Damien Legrand. Aurélie Langelin is not one of the priorities of the public authorities.”
According to the JDD, the director of the minister’s cabinet invoked, on January 11, the “separation of powers” to refuse a “particular” investigation into the reasons for the murder of Aurélie Langelin.
But the latter’s lawyer wishes to recall that the same “inspection mission” had been carried out in the case of Chahinez Boutaa, injured by a firearm and burned alive in the street by her husband, on May 4, 2021.
“Aurélie Langelin, who had sunk into alcohol and drugs under the influence of her companion, who perhaps did not lead the most ideal life, perhaps does not deserve the we dwell on his fate…”, expresses the lawyer bitterly.
In his response, the Minister of Justice, however, mentioned the forthcoming implementation “of feedback on the facts”. “That is to say, very likely, [ils en parleront] in the context of informal meetings, the council specifies, annoyed. In other words, don’t [feront] nothing.”
In his letter, Damien Legrand denounces a series of failures, ranging from “multiple untreated complaints” to “lack of consideration” addressed to the victim. “I remind you that without these dysfunctions, police and judicial, this woman would not have died.”
First, the various complaints and handrails filed since 2018 by Aurélie Langelin against Karim B., her partner at the time, “have never been processed, there has never been a follow-up, he (Karim B.) was never summoned,” he argues.
Before pointing to a second flaw in this file. This took place during a complaint filed on May 5, 2021, 25 days before she was murdered. In front of officials at the Douai police station, Aurélie Langelin said she was “threatened with death” by her spouse, whom he said wanted to “burn her alive”. “Nobody reacted, denounces the lawyer. This complaint remained a dead letter”
The investigators will explain that they called and summoned the victim twice, but that the latter never showed up at the police station. The lawyer explains this behavior: “We study the phenomenon of feminicide enough to know that these women are under the influence of their companion. If we expect them to file a complaint, and then respond to all the court summons, obviously they won’t.”
As a reminder, in the case of Aurélie Legrand, the latter was no longer in possession of her mobile phone. It was his spouse that he had taken to control his contacts with the outside world. “It is obvious that these women are isolated, we cannot answer them that it is their fault what happened”, he recalls.
Three weeks after the complaint of May 5, the police intervened at the home of the spouse of Aurélie Langelin, alerted by neighbors who complained of the cries. They then stuck to a neighborhood dispute. The next day, reveals the pleadings, they will write that Aurélie did not complain of anything.
But the lawyer disputes the version of the investigators. “This type of writing goes against everything that the witnesses declare, he reports. On the minutes, the latter declare that in reality the police intervened. That they, witnesses, were present, that they entered the home. And that it was not a calm and serene discussion. That this man was threatening her with death. That she was naked on the sofa, that she already had blows on the body. And that obviously the police should have done something.”
The lawyer regrets that French justice “does not strive and does not wish to know the root cause of these dysfunctions in order to be able to remedy them”. And to add: “The same causes very often lead to the same effects, there is every reason to think that it will happen again unfortunately.”
Aurélie Langelin is part of the tragic list of 113 feminicides counted by the association #NousToutes, in 2021. In 2020, the Hauts-de-France ranked among the four most affected regions by this phenomenon.
