On Friday, a French court condemned a man to 30 years in prison for burning his lover alive after attempting to leave him.
Jonathan Boillet, 36, has been on trial in a northern French criminal court since Tuesday for the murder of Sandy Cucheval, 33, in November 2020.
He burned alive the mother of four in a car they were riding in. She was sent to the burn unit at a hospital in the northern city of Lille, where she died a week later.
The regional criminal court in Saint-Omer condemned him to 30 years in jail, with at least 20 years without parole, as well as required treatment for his alcohol and drug addictions.
Boillet first denied murdering Cucheval, saying she died in an accident.
On Thursday, he finally admitted, “It was me who doused her in petrol.”
Cucheval later informed a policewoman on the floor of a garage that Boillet poured petrol on her and lit her on fire.
According to a local, she witnessed the car exploding into flames and the woman exiting the vehicle like “a human torch”.
Cucheval had four children, the youngest being three and a half years old at the time.
She had been with Boillet for some months but wished to leave him.
Boillet was sexually molested and raped by his uncle, who was eight years older than him. When he was 11, he started consuming booze and drugs.
He has a lengthy criminal record, including four convictions for domestic abuse, and admits to violent outbursts.
Every three days, one woman is killed in France.
According to the Justice Ministry, 94 women were slain in 2023.