French Woman Jailed for Killing Abusive Boyfriend with Shotgun

A FRENCH woman has been jailed for shooting her boyfriend at close blank range with a shotgun as he threatened her with violence.

Alexandra Richard, 42, killed her boyfriend Sebastien Gest at their home in the small village of Montreuil-en-Caux, Normandy in October 2016. He had allegedly threatened to ‘smash her face in’ during a domestic incident, causing her to kill him. She immediately called the police, who arrived at the scene and confirmed his death.

The court heard that the couple had met at the veranda construction firm where they both worked two years prior to the killing. Gest had a history of violence, having been convicted for a shooting in 1999. In January 2016 Richard had filed a domestic abuse complaint against her boyfriend, who was also her manager at work.

Her lawyer, Nathalie Tomasini, told the court that Richard was ‘a beautiful person’ who was ‘ideal prey’ for Gest. She described their relationship as one of ‘domination and control, a form of control that allowed physical, sexual, and economic abuse’ against Richard who ‘had to be at his service, whether it be sexually or for household chores’.

Despite maintaining that she didn’t intend to kill her boyfriend and that she’d planned to escape with her children, the court sentenced Richard to ten years in prison.


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Oisin Sweeney

Oisin is an Irish writer based in Seville, the sunny capital of Andalucia. After starting his working life as a bookseller, he moved into journalism and cut his teeth as a reporter at one of Ireland's biggest news websites. Since joining Euro Weekly News in November, he has enjoyed covering the latest stories from Seville, Spain and further afield - with special interests in crime, cybersecurity, and European politics. Anyone who can pronounce his name first try gets a free cerveza...

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