Weeping widower facing life in prison after covering up murder
A HUSBAND is facing life in prison in France after covering up the murder of his wife by claiming she had been attacked by a stranger while out jogging.
Three months into the investigation, Jonathann Daval, 36, confessed to police that he had beaten his wife Alexia during a heated argument, smashed her face against a concrete wall, and strangled her.
Her charred remains were discovered two days later hidden under branches near their home in Gray-laVille in eastern France, in October 2017.
The case hit the headlines at the height of the worldwide #Metoo campaign against sexual abuse and harassment of women.
Daval initially said his spouse, a 29-year-old bank employee, had gone for a run and never returned.
His tearful appeal to find her killer triggered a mass outpouring of public
sympathy which saw about 10,000 people turn out for a silent march in her memory.
Daval changed his account of what had happened on several occasions and at one point blamed his brother-in-law for the murder.
But yesterday at his trial he admitted being the only person implicated in the death of his wife. Mrs Daval’s parents, Isabelle and Jean-pierre Fouillot, attended the hearing.
“We are here for new revelations and to highlight the horrors that Alexia was subjected to,” said Mrs Fouillot.
Daval told investigators his wife had abused him physically and humiliated him by claiming he “wasn’t a man” because he refused to have sex with her when she wanted a child.
He claimed to have lashed out in a fit of rage without meaning to kill her.
Gilles-jean Portejoie, her parents’ lawyer, said: “When a husband kills her wife, it’s always her fault. To smear the victim is the worst of defence. His guilt is not in doubt; the real question is why?
“Jonathann Daval must explain what happened that evening, how they got to that point, what drove him to hitting his wife a dozen times or more, what drove him to strangling her for four or five minutes.”
In France, 146 women were killed by their partner or ex-lover in 2019.