Frenchman on trial for murdering wife after pretending she vanished while out running

France has been transfixed by the Daval case

Credit: SEBASTIEN BOZON/ AFP

A Frenchman went on trial on Monday for murdering his wife and then pretending she had been the victim of an attack while out for a jog in a case that deeply shocked France.

Jonathann Daval, 36, faces life in prison for the murder of his wife Alexia, whose charred remains were discovered hidden under branches near their town of Gray-la-Ville in eastern France in October 2017.

The case hit the headlines at the height of the worldwide #MeToo campaign against sexual abuse and harassment of women. 

Mr Daval initially said his wife Alexia, a 29-year-old bank employee, had gone for a run and never came back, triggering a massive outpouring of public sympathy when he issued a tearful appeal to find her killer. Nearly 10,000 people turned out in the couple’s small town for a silent march in her memory, which he attended.

However, in a coup de theatre, three months later the IT worker caved in and confessed to the murder, telling police he had beaten his wife during a heated argument, smashed her face against a concrete wall, and strangled her.

He initially denied setting fire to her body, but finally admitted to that too, in June last year. 

Jonathann Daval faces life in prison for the murder of wife Alexia after initial claims she had been killed by mystery assailant while jogging

Credit: Telegraph

Mr Daval changed his account several times since, at one point withdrawing his confession, blaming his brother-in-law, and finally admitting to everything all once again.

In court, the judge asked whether he admitted to "being the only person implicated in the death" of his wife.

“Yes”, came the tearful reply.

Alexia Daval’s parents, Isabelle and Jean-Pierre Fouillot, attended the hearing.

"We are here for new revelations and to highlight the horrors that Alexia was subjected to," said Mrs Fouillot.

Mr Daval had told investigators his wife had abused him physically and humiliated him by claiming he “wasn’t a man” because he refused to have sex with her when she wanted a child. He claimed to have lashed out in a fit of rage without meaning to kill her.

Her parents’ lawyer, Gilles-Jean Portejoie, said: “When a husband kills her wife, it’s always her fault. To smear the victim is the worst of defences. (His) guilt is not in doubt; the real question is why?”

”Jonathann Daval must explain what happened that evening, how they got to that point, what drove him to hitting his wife a dozen times or more, what drove him to strangling her for four or five minutes.”

On Monday, French authorities said 125,840 women were victims of domestic violence in 2019. Another 146 were murdered by their partner or ex-partner — 25 more than the previous year.