For the first time, all the players in the penal chain have recognized a causal link between the moral harassment suffered and suicide .

Mélissa is a young woman full of life, simple, authentic, pure, ingenuous, when she meets J. Her psychologist say of her that she was very sensitive to injustice, to criticism, that she had a capacity to feel guilty, without any suicidal tendency . J. meanwhile, is described as a possessive, jealous, authoritarian man, having the habit of belittling, humiliating, threatening. Their relationship will last 5 months . In 2016, Mélissa, then 23 , committed suicide by jumping from the second floor of a building .

This relationship, which will last barely 5 months, will be a dazzling descent into hell for Mélissa, whose change in behavior will be noticed by everyone around her: isolated , she no longer goes out with her friends, sees her family very little, even abandoning her professional project, emaciated, losing his joy of living .

To get out of this mental prison in which J. had locked her up for five months, suicide, death, will be for Mélissa the only solution to get out of this hell , and perhaps even the last of her freedoms. This is precisely forced suicide .

And it is exactly this process that has been perfectly demonstrated, characterized by the entire penal chain. The order for reference is exemplary in this regard, in that it clearly establishes the direct causal link between the moral harassment suffered by Mélissa and her suicide :

J. acknowledged that he knew Melissa was fragile. He couldn’t ignore the ascendancy he had over her. This grip and the real business of denigration put in place by J. throughout the five months of their relationship reached its climax on the night of February 11 to 12 and the morning of February 12 with an exchange of text messages including insults and threats of extreme violence, the latter pushing the evil to the point of trying to make her believe that he could attempt suicide because of her by slashing his index finger and wrist. The fact then of rejecting her and refusing to speak with her when she had come to his home to be able to discuss with him led Mélissa, who was obviously already at that moment in a very fragile psychological state given the messages violence of which she was the recipient, to her fatal gesture.

It follows from these observations that the repeated actions of J., characterized throughout his five-month relationship with Mélissa by first disparaging and guilt-inducing then violent and insulting remarks towards her, had the consequence a progressive deterioration of the living conditions of the latter , and finally pushed him to end his life.

The definitive indictment is unequivocal:

In addition, if the act of suicide is proven, which the instruction does not contradict, the incapacity is necessarily greater than 8 days since the harassment led Mélissa to suicide.

It is quite unprecedented for a man to be tried for moral harassment having caused an ITT (total temporary incapacity for work) of more than 8 days, while the victim died of it.

When language becomes violence, it too can lead to death. And this is what this referral of JW to the criminal court meant when it became very clear that the harassment suffered by Mélissa was the direct cause of her suicide.

The former companion of Mélissa was released on June 26, 2020 by the Correctional Court of Chambéry. The judges considered that there was no certain link between the harassment suffered by the young woman and her suicide in 2016, going against the requisitions of the prosecution who appealed…