Female jail guard goes on trial for ‘kiss of death’ to gangster

A French female prison guard stood trial yesterday for planting a “kiss of death” on an incognito mafia boss that helped rivals identify him and gun him down.

Pleading for leniency, her lawyer described Cathy Senechal as an “Emma Bovary” figure, bored with her dull existence as a mother-of-four, who gradually became fascinated with the Corsican underworld.

Senechal (48) is accused of singling out Jean-Luc Codaccioni, a Corsican gangster, at the island’s Bastia airport in 2017 by giving him a “baiser de la mort” − a kiss pre-arranged as a signal to mark him out for assassination – along with a second mafia enemy, Antoine Quilichini.

Both were members of Corsica’s notorious “Brise de Mer” gang.

Quilichini, known as “Tony the Butcher”, had been released from prison 15 days earlier and was killed instantly. Codaccioni, an inmate at Borgo jail who was on prison leave, died of his wounds seven days later.

A minute before the shots were fired, Ms Senechal, a prison guard in Borgo, was seen on surveillance cameras “running up” to embrace Codaccioni.

After finishing his victims off with a Kalashnikov and handgun, the killer turned to witnesses and said, “it’s nothing, we’re shooting a film”, before driving off.

While Corsican gangsters are notorious for respecting an omerta on crimes, Senechal, one of 16 defendants due to appear in court in Aix-en-Provence, has been far more talkative.

She admitted that she had given the hitmen information about the dates on which the two victims were leaving and that she had offered to go to the airport to describe Codaccioni’s outfit to the killer.

Senechal’s story inspired a film by Stephane Demoustier, Borgo, released in cinemas on April 11, much to the chagrin of the lawyers, who say it could influence the trial.

Her lawyer, Renaud Portejoie, said: “Some have rightly underlined the romanesque side of her actions à la Emma Bovary, namely a form of weariness regarding her daily life as a rather bored mother-of-four. I think she needed this thrill.”

He said that Senechal, pleading guilty, had “admitted everything” and co-operated fully with investigating magistrates in the six years she spent behind bars awaiting trial.

“She will take responsibility for it. I hope the jury will understand her act… and deliver an intelligent verdict.” (© Telegraph Media Group Ltd 2024)