The conclusion of a long trial. Ludovic Bertin, on trial for two weeks for the murder preceded by an attempted rape of the young Victorine Dartois in 2020, was sentenced this Friday to life imprisonment, with a security period of twenty years, by the Isère Assize Court.
The murderer, aged 29, was on trial for strangling and drowning the 18-year-old girl, after attempting to rape her, as well as for a separate case of rape of another young woman in 2018. Attorney General Françoise Benezech had requested life imprisonment on Thursday, with a security period of 25 years, believing that the accused was looking for a “prey to rape” and had followed a “carefully calculated scenario “.
Victorine Dartois, a student strangled and drowned in 2020
Victorine Dartois, a BTS communications student, disappeared on September 26, 2020 while walking back to her family home in Villefontaine (Isère), about thirty kilometers southeast of Lyon, after an afternoon of shopping with friends. Her body was found in a creek less than forty-eight hours later, her jeans abandoned nearby. The autopsy established that she had been strangled and drowned.
Arrested three weeks later following a denunciation by his best friend, Ludovic Bertin, who already had around ten convictions on his criminal record, admitted to Victorine’s murder. On the other hand, he always fiercely denied having attempted to rape her, justifying his action by an “argument” during their chance meeting and by problems linked to his addiction to cocaine. He now has ten days to appeal this conviction.
