A French woman who killed her stepfather after enduring more than 20 years of abuse has been convicted of premeditated murder but will not serve any further prison time. Valérie Bacot, now 40, was raped by Daniel Polette from the age of 12 and later forced into marriage with him, bearing four children.
The court in Saône-et-Loire heard that Bacot shot Polette in the back of the neck in March 2016, after he began prostituting her to strangers and she feared he would start abusing their teenage daughter. The jury deliberated for nearly five hours before rejecting claims that Bacot was not of sound mind at the time of the killing.
Bacot was sentenced to four years in prison, with three years suspended. Given time already served, she was released immediately. There was applause in the courtroom when the judge announced she was free to leave.
The case highlighted failures by French authorities to address domestic abuse. Polette had initially been charged with a lesser sexual offence and allowed to return to the family home after a short prison sentence. Bacot’s book, Tout le Monde Savait (Everyone Knew), describes how family and police turned a blind eye to the abuse.
During the trial, Polette’s sister and ex-wife testified that he had also raped and threatened them, calling him a “monster”. France has one of Europe’s highest rates of femicide, with at least 55 women killed by partners or ex-partners so far this year.
