Christophe Ellul was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison for involuntary manslaughter after the death of his partner Elisa Pilarski, killed in 2019 by her pitbull Curtis, whose justice ordered euthanasia. In front of a packed room at the criminal court of Soissons (Aisne), the president recalled the conclusions of the investigation, exonerating the dogs of a hunting pack present the same afternoon in the forest where the facts occurred.
On the other hand, Curtis, “descended from fighting dogs” and trained to bite by Christophe Ellul, was “capable of alone causing the death of Elisa Pilarski through bites”. The victim’s genetic fingerprint was noted on the latter’s upper lip, the president underlined. The court requested the euthanasia of Curtis, emphasizing that this pit bull, locked since the facts in a kennel, is “out of control”, having “bitten his own master” and a volunteer. “Entrusting him to an association would amount to denying what he was capable of doing and what he could still do: kill,” insisted the president.
Christophe Ellul trained Curtis to bite “from a very young age”, which “resulted in a dog conditioned to attack who knows no other signal to stop than force”, the court further underlined.
The court thus followed the requisitions made by the prosecution during the trial in March.
On November 16, 2019, Christophe Ellul discovered the body of his 29-year-old partner, with around fifty serious canine bites, in a forest southwest of Soissons. Elisa Pilarski had gone for a walk there alone with Curtis, an American Pitbull Terrier. A few minutes before her death, she had called her partner for help. Christophe Ellul first blamed hunting dogs, which he said were present around the victim’s body upon his arrival.
Curtis is ‘extremely dangerous’
A version ruled out by the investigation and various analyses, notably DNA, all converging towards his own dog.
The criminal court reclassified the facts as simple manslaughter, ruling out three aggravating circumstances: the illegal importation of Curtis, a type of “biting” training which is not authorized in France, as well as the lack of precaution by Christophe Ellul.
He had not forbidden his companion, a slender woman of 1.52 m and 56 kg and six months pregnant, from walking the hound weighing around twenty kilos alone. The court, like the prosecution in March, emphasized that Christophe Ellul was a “bruised” man experiencing “great guilt since the events”.
On the second day of his trial, Christophe Ellul seemed to accept the responsibility of his dog in the death of his partner, before starting to doubt again. Curtis’ fate sparked strong reactions when prosecutors requested his euthanasia in March, with several petitions calling for his “pardon” totaling more than 100,000 signatures this week.
The lawyer for the victim’s family, Me Xavier Terquem-Adoue, did not wish to speak before the deliberation. Curtis “can’t help it: he is a victim of his master’s education. But the result is that it is extremely dangerous,” he nevertheless declared to the media Reporterre.
