Freedom for abused Frenchwoman who killed her husband

A FRENCH mother of four has walked free from court after being sentenced to one year in prison for killing her husband after decades of sexual, physical and psychological abuse.

The verdict allowed her to be released as she has already served time in preventive detention and she was met with applause outside court. The case drew broad attention and support for the defendant amid a national reckoning with longheld taboos around domestic abuse.

Valerie Bacot, 40, admitted shooting Daniel Polette dead in 2016. Polette was her stepfather, who later married her and forced her into prostitution.

A jury in Chalon-surSaone, central France, found Bacot guilty of the murder. She was sentenced to one year in prison and a three-year suspended sentence.

The prosecutor had earlier requested that Bacot should not be sent to prison, saying he did not consider her a danger to society.

The trial showed the degree of control and influence Polette – 25 years Bacot’s senior – had over her.

“Yes, I killed him but if I had not done it, my children would have,” Bacot said.

Polette arrived in Bacot’s life in 1992 as her mother’s companion. A few months later, she said, the sexual abuse started. She was 12 when he began raping her, the court heard.

Polette’s sisters reached out to a social worker and he was arrested in 1995 and convicted of sexual assaults, spending two years in prison. Afterwards, Polette returned to the family home and started abusing Bacot again.

“When he came back, he said he would leave me alone. My mother had forgiven him. But it started again. Following a rape I got pregnant,” Bacot said. She was 17 at the time.

Her mother threw her out of the house and she started living with Polette, whom she described as having total control over her life. He did not allow her to work or use contraception. She had three other children.

In 2002, he forced her into prostitution, still controlling all of her actions.

In March 2016, following a violent prostitution-related situation, she shot Polette with the revolver. Her children helped her bury the body – they were given suspended prison sentences.

Bacot was arrested by police the following year and imprisoned, before being released under judicial supervision in 2018 pending trial.

Family members came to the court to say they do not regret Polette’s death. His brother and sisters described him as a “monster”.

“The person I thank the most in the world is Valerie, because she killed him. She did what I should have done for a long time,” said Polette’s sister, 59. She said he raped her when she was 12.