Tortured on an agricultural road in Loudéac: two men sentenced to five and six years in prison – Bretagne

“But how do you go from this scene, where you are at his house, you seem to get along well, to what is being judged today? How ? This Tuesday, March 28, 2023, in Saint-Brieuc, the president of the correctional court challenges the complexity of a file first opened to the criminal, for acts of torture and barbarism, with a simple question. They are two in the box, supposed to answer it: dismissed for aggravated violence, kidnapping and forcible confinement. They don’t respond, except that one admits to having “gone too far” and the other “apologizes”.

The case plunges into the heart of the opaque realities of Loudéac, “corrupted by narcotics”, decides the president before even sketching the facts. All the protagonists of the day are, in one way or another. Between the defendants and the victim, a 40-year-old Loudéacien, there is indeed a narcotics debt of 3,800 euros which first aroused the interest of the investigators of the Saint-Brieuc research brigade, seized of the affair.

700 g of powder disappeared

Before they are interested in another reason, which would better explain why everything changed, this February 21, 2023. “A confusion or an imbroglio”, reports the president. A story of 700 g of powder which would have disappeared from the victim. He would have threatened to attack the one he suspects of having committed the carrot: the Parisian. That’s what it’s called in Loudéac. And his nickname is never a good sign.

At 25, despite working in the Paris region, he regularly comes to deliver narcotics to this town in Central Brittany, which he also visits with his family from time to time. He sells in particular to the victim. They know each other rather well, since a joint stay in prison, in Fleury. The Loudéacien was then serving a sentence after a conviction for narcotics. The youngest for a serious robbery.

A trap

But, this evening of February 21, between the former fellow prisoners, the tension is rising. They’re at the victim’s girlfriend’s house, he has his kids upstairs and they’re drinking tea. With the Parisian, there is another man, who could be his right arm locally. He also drinks tea. And then they start talking about the messages, which a third party has thrown out, and which evoke a story of ambushes targeting the Parisian, for this story of stolen powder. There are also “racist remarks”.

A backhand leaves, around 11 p.m. And the violence will not stop. In the house, the Loudéacien is beaten up. Nose broken, lip split, sounded, he is put in a car, heading for the countryside. An agricultural road. And a ditch. “He is undressed, lying on the ground, he curls up because he knows what is going to happen”, says the president. The victim, on the bench of the civil parties, turns his head towards the window of the courtroom.

Burned with a fork

“He is whipped with fine branches but, above all, we urinate on his neck”. “You Sir, continues the president, you try to rape it with a fork but, as it does not work, you put it on the fire and you burn it several times. »

They will leave the victim in the field, before leaving. The gendarmes found the suspects who admitted the facts in police custody. From the box, again, they do not dispute anything. Explain nothing. Otherwise this sentence: “It had to be violent enough to scare him and that he doesn’t try anything afterwards”, says the Parisian.

The court sentenced Cédric Manchaud to five years in prison. Ten months of reprieve are revoked for him. He should no longer appear in Loudéac. Alexis Gravelot was sentenced to six years in prison. He is forbidden to appear in the Côtes-d’Armor.