Marc Cécillon in April 2014. PHILIPPE DESMAZES/AFP
On the occasion of the release of the bookThe Cecillion Affair. Chantal, story of a feminicide», A look back at the various episodes of the tragedy caused by the former player of Bourgoin-Jallieu and the XV of France.
August 2004: the murder
On the night of August 7 to 8, 2004, Marc Cécillon, under the influence of alcohol (2.35 grams of alcohol in his blood) during a party organized with friends in Saint-Savin (Isère), kills his wife Chantal with three 357 magnum bullets. It will take 10 people to master the former tricolor international (1.92 m for 120 kg) to 46 selections, including five as captain. The gendarmerie will then specify that Cécillon would not have really realized the death of his wife until Sunday morning, several hours after the start of his police custody.
November 2006: sentencing
On November 10, 2006, Marc Cécillon was sentenced by the Assize Court of Isère to 20 years in prison for the murder of his wife. The jurors of the Assize Court go beyond the indictment of the Advocate General who had demanded a 15-year prison sentence against the former rugby player, then 47 years old. During his trial, the former player, who carried out 27 months of preventive detention, admits that after his retirement from sport, he imagined that his wife had a lover and that he had let himself be eaten away by depression and jealousy. The former third-line decides to appeal.
Read alsoChantal Cécillon, forgotten victim of a feminicide
December 2008: sentence reduced on appeal
The appeal trial of the former international, sentenced on November 10, 2006 to 20 years’ imprisonment for the murder of his wife, is taking place in Nîmes (Gard) from December 1 to 5. His sentence is reduced to 14 years. He is defended by Mr.e Éric Dupond-Moretti, who became Minister of Justice. “It was a fairer trial than that of Grenoble. Either way, the pain won’t bring my mom back.”reacted Angélique, the eldest daughter of Marc Cécillon, while her sister Céline, 26, came out livid from the courtroom.
2011: released from prison
Seven years after the tragedy, Marc Cécillon is released from the Muret detention center (Haute-Garonne). On June 27, 2011, the judge of freedoms and detention of Toulouse had accepted his request for conditional release at mid-sentence, accompanied by very strict conditions. Obliged to submit to medical and psychological follow-up, the former rugby player is prohibited from contacting the civil parties, from speaking publicly about the case and from traveling to Isère.
Read also“I have served my sentence. I have nothing to reproach myself for…”: exclusive excerpts from the book on the Cécillon affair
2018: new conviction for theft, violence and drunkenness
During a harvest festival, in August near Collioure where he now works as a farm worker, Marc Cécillon, drunk, jostles his boss (who will be prescribed 1 day of ITT) and some other workers who try to intervene, before hitting a vehicle. Placed in pre-trial detention for 48 hours, he is presented for immediate appearance for “drunk driving, without a license and at excessive speed, violence by a person in a state of obvious intoxication and theft”. The court let him free after having sentenced him to a fine of 350 euros, 12 months in prison including 6 months suspended and a probation for two years with an obligation to care, to work and to repair the damage.
Read alsoThe ex-captain of the XV of France, Marc Cécillon, again sentenced to prison
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