18-month prison sentence for man already sentenced 23 times

A year ago, a woman was violently assaulted by one of her friends in the Agrément district. The incident took place in the evening. The victim was talking to her neighbors when M. came to ask her for 20 dollars. Her refusal made the man angry and he finally struck her on the arm with a machete. The blow was so severe that she required immediate surgery. Sixty days of complete disability were prescribed.

Testifying before the court as a victim, the woman explained that she knew her assailant but that they had never been a couple contrary to what he had said to the investigators. To defend herself, she also grabbed a large kitchen knife during the dispute.

The defendant was well known to the police and courts since he has had not less than twenty-three convictions in his criminal record since 2004; the last one was a one-year suspended prison sentence in 2014. A record which doesn’t seem to worry him. As he has already done ten times before, he didn’t come to the hearing last week.

A behavior that influenced the prosecutor’s demands. A two-year prison sentence and an arrest warrant were requested.

After deliberation, the court sentenced him to eighteen months in prison. An arrest warrant was also pronounced.

He shall soon be arrested by the gendarmes.