Damien Lacroix, 42 years oldis detained at Beauvais prison (Oise) where he is serving his seventeenth sentence. In September 2023, when he was not far from his release, he got angry and said to the head of the disciplinary unit, speaking of another supervisor: “when I go out I’m going to buy a 9 millimeter, I’m going to come back and I’m going to shoot him…“. “I’ve been judged for this before», exclaims the detainee during his immediate appearance at the Beauvais court this Friday, December 7. But it is confused with another sentence handed down three weeks earlier and which earned him four months in prison for rebellion.
Insults and outrages galore
The president patiently takes up the facts one by one and he manages to calm down, until she arrives at the facts which occurred in October 2024 in the office of the integration and probation counselor, to whom he blames not to let him prepare for his exit. “Before, I had a job and an apartment. When I get out, I will have nothing and I have been banned from working, going to school and taking training since I have been in Beauvais. As soon as I arrived, I was placed in the disciplinary unit.” He then goes around the office and calls her “bitch… SPIP cunt“. He recognizes “having lost a temper“. The advisor explained in her complaint that “his aggressive behavior hinders the help that can be given to him“.
He finally appears for facts which occurred during the visit of the supervisors for the survey of the bars. A common operation but which, given the character, requires the presence of three supervisors on whom he closes the cell door with a kick. Reinforcements arrive, bringing the number of supervisors to five. The inmate still refuses to open the door but gives in under the numbers. A supervisor is spat on in the face. Kept on the ground, the inmate kicks in the face of the guard who holds his feet. Damien Lacroix acknowledges the rebellion but, contrary to the testimony of the supervisors, he denies having spit on the supervisor. He admits to having struggled but not intentionally kicking.
17 convictions in twenty years
Convicted seventeen times since 2004 for damage, violence, alcohol or drugs while driving or even threatening to kill, he spent six years in prison. The prosecutor notes that all the alternatives to incarceration from which he benefited were revoked. She therefore requests seventeen months in prison with warrant of committal, including five months for the rebellion.
Defense lawyer Domitille Risbourg explains that her client “resents the judicial system which puts him back in prison on the day of his release, prohibits him from accessing work or school and refuses his transfer“. She believes that the prosecutor’s requisitions are based on her client’s criminal record.
Damien Lacroix receives fourteen months in prison including four months for the rebellion, with warrant of committal. He will have to compensate the civil parties for their moral damage.
