A former deputy of the presidential party La République en Marche (LREM) of the Loire, found guilty of sexual assault on two girls aged 6 and 8 and possession of child pornography images, was sentenced Monday, February 27 to three years of prison, including two years suspended, by the criminal court of Saint-Etienne.
The representative of the public prosecutor’s office Marielle Romier had requested five years of imprisonment, including two with probationary suspension, against Matheus Branquinho, 43, who sees himself imposing five years of ineligibility, an obligation of care and a definitive ban on any activity involving contact with minors.
The former Franco-Brazilian deputy of the LREM deputy of the 3And Loire constituency, Valéria Faure-Muntian (elected from 2017 to 2022), was found guilty of assaulting a 6-year-old girl belonging to her family circle, as well as another 8-year-old child, during the year 2020 at their parents’ home.
He is also ordered to pay several thousand euros in damages to one of the families concerned, which has filed a civil action, as well as to the association for the protection of children Innocence in danger. “Expert psychiatrists and psychologists believe that his recurrence is possible because he evacuates the prohibition linked to pedocrime”underlined the deputy prosecutor about the one who methodically denied the alleged facts.
“Convoluted” statements
“In the ten years that I have been called to the bar, this case is perhaps the most difficult that I have had to plead”confessed his counsel, Me Mehdi Mahnane, at the start of his speech, referring to a “personality weakness of this boy with variable declarations”otherwise described as intelligent. “I would like to be able to say that these children lie or are wrong, but nothing in the file allows me to do so”recognized the lawyer, qualifying as“convoluted” the statements of his client who had first denied the facts, before acknowledging them before the investigating judge and then definitively retracting.
“Under pressure, I ended up telling the gendarmes and the judge what they wanted to hear”justified the defendant, who at the hearing was not able to explain the presence in his computer of more than four thousand photos or videos of a child pornography nature. “I will let you appreciate if his statements have convinced you of his innocence”, concluded the defender of this leader of a training company. Questioned by Agence France-Presse in May 2022 when the dismissal of her former deputy in corrections was announced, the former deputy Valéria Faure-Muntian (2017-2022) had expressed her “amazement”asserting “ignore all of these accusations”.