Femicide: 28 years in prison requested against a former police officer for the murder of his partner

The former police officer, now 33, faces life imprisonment for the murder, which he attributed to his "unhealthy," "tyrannical," "morbid" and "unfounded" jealousy.

Describing the "chronicle of a foretold femicide," Attorney General Inès Bordet asked the jury to add a two-thirds security period to the 28 years of imprisonment, and called for "a great deal of perspective" on the accused's regrets.

Amanda Glain's murder is one of the first of 118 femicides recorded by the Ministry of the Interior in 2022.

For David Apelbaum, one of the defense attorneys, the sentence requested by the prosecution is "delusional." "A sentence of more than twenty years in prison would be excessive in this case," the lawyer argued, pointing to lower verdicts than that requested in several femicides in which the perpetrators denied or minimized their guilt, citing in particular the Jonathan Daval case.

The body of Amanda Glain, a 28-year-old digital content creator, was found on January 28, 2022, in the northeast Paris apartment rented by Arnaud Bonnefoy, originally from Marseille and then stationed in Seine-Saint-Denis. He had surrendered after three weeks on the run.

He explained that she had just confirmed to him the end of a two-year relationship marked by violence, insults, death threats and ruined by her jealousy.

"I would like to express the regret that haunts me for this horrible, "monstrous" act, carried out with "terrible force," he said, describing Amanda Glain as a "perfectly balanced woman" whom he said he loved "deeply."

The civil party's lawyer, Frédéric Delaméa, asks that people not be "taken in by Arnaud Bonnefoy's appearance": the person they are judging is "not the one in the dock, not the little lamb, all calm and smooth." "The person he is is the person you saw," replies Mr. Apelbaum.

Arnaud Bonnefoy repeats his account of the events: the day after yet another argument in the closed confines of his 18 m² Parisian studio, an argument over the young woman's social media posts, Amanda Glain "gets ready for work." He wakes up in turn "imagining that the argument has stopped." "She tells me I'm just an asshole," that she'll find someone better, he says, his voice falling to a whisper. "I think to myself, 'Why does she say all these things to me?' 'Why does she hate me?'"

While Amanda Glain was putting on her makeup, he described himself as "overwhelmed" by "the fear of her leaving, of her abandoning me," a mixture of "fury, anger, hatred, and pain." He got up, went into the bathroom, and strangled her. In the bathroom, Amanda Glain's brother, who had said the day before he had exhausted all his tears, listened in tears.

President Marc Sommerer questions Arnaud Bonnefoy: when he strangled Amanda Glain, did he intend to kill her? The accused first explains that he "did not want" to kill his partner, that he was "out of touch with reality." Then, in a whisper, he says: "Yes, indeed."