Fatih Ataoglu had been claiming his innocence for more than two years. “The shot went off on its own. (…) I would never have hurt him,” he repeated several times during his trial. This was obviously not enough to convince the Assize Court of Perpignan. The 47-year-old man was sentenced on Wednesday to 28 years in prison for having killed his partner in 2020 with a bullet in the head, in their accommodation in Boulou (Pyrénées-Orientales).
On the evening of January 23, 2020, when he was intoxicated and had consumed cocaine, he shot his companion, Valérie, with a rifle. Aged 47 and mother of four children from another union, she had been hit in the forehead and died of her injuries. The accused always pleaded the accident, saying that he unwittingly activated the rifle he was lubricating.
“My mother dared not say anything”
A defense undermined by the ballistic report and several testimonies, including that of an ex-girlfriend with whom he had a child. “I see myself again with my big belly wiping my blood on the ground,” she told the court on Monday, describing “domestic violence”. “I had met this woman”, she added, saying that she then advised Valérie to leave “before it was too late”.
“My mother dared not say anything, he had turned her brain,” also assured earlier this week one of the victim’s children, describing a relationship of influence with a violent man.
The author of the fatal shooting was found guilty of murdering his wife. The accused, already known to justice, would have killed his companion “because she wanted to leave him”, estimated this Wednesday the representative of the prosecution. His conviction is accompanied by a ban on possessing a weapon and on staying in two departments for 10 years.