“Everything points to” Frédéric Péchier as guilty of 30 poisonings, including 12 fatal ones, the prosecution asserted Thursday before the Doubs Assize Court, describing the anesthetist from Besançon as “one of the greatest criminals in French judicial history”.
"It is not a doctor you are judging, but a criminal who used medicine to kill," insisted Attorney General Thérèse Brunisso, who is leading the prosecution with Christine de Curraize.
They will request a prison sentence on Friday at the end of their closing arguments.
The accused "is obviously neither Guy Georges nor Michel Fourniret, but he is nonetheless a serial killer," insisted Thérèse Brunisso, "certain of his guilt."
Described as a "liar", a "manipulator", a man "ready to do anything to save his skin" even if it means accusing "everyone" and "throwing his former colleagues to the wolves", Frédéric Péchier remained impassive.
On trial for the past three months in Besançon, the 53-year-old doctor, who has consistently maintained his innocence, is accused of poisoning 30 patients, aged four to 89, between 2008 and 2017, in two clinics in Besançon. According to the prosecution, he acted to harm colleagues with whom he was in conflict.
In this case, "everything points to Frédéric Péchier and only Frédéric Péchier," stressed Christine de Curraize.
Investigators have been sifting through potential suspects in the poisonings at the Saint-Vincent clinic and the Franche-Comté Polyclinic.
"Out of a total of 1,514 people, Frédéric Péchier is the only one to have worked at both establishments during the period in question," she pointed out.
When he arrived at the Polyclinique de Franche-Comté in January 2009, where he would stay for six months, there was a sudden and "disturbing" succession of three serious adverse events (SAEs) within three months. At the same time, no suspicious SAEs occurred at the Saint-Vincent clinic, which he had left.
– “He who hides his crime” –
According to the prosecution, Frédéric Péchier contaminated infusion bags with potassium, local anesthetics, adrenaline or heparin, to cause cardiac arrest or hemorrhages in patients treated by other anesthesiologists.
He "acts to reach the clinic or to reach his colleagues," explained Christine de Curraize, highlighting the accused's "narcissistic flaws" and his "need for power."
Frédéric Péchier "is not an impulsive person," he "never goes to direct confrontation," a behavior "compatible with the typology of the crime he is accused of": "the poisoner is the one who hides his crime."
Christine de Curraize in particular revisited the latest poisoning attributed to the anesthesiologist, the case of Jean-Claude Gandon, 70 years old, who suffered a cardiac arrest on January 20, 2017 at the Saint-Vincent clinic.
The prosecution alleges that Frédéric Péchier poisoned his patient to show that, like his colleagues, he too was a victim of malicious acts.
But he made "too many mistakes", including leaving the "weapons of the crime", syringes, at the scene.
With the Gandon case, he "signs his downfall," because "it's as if Frédéric Péchier had written in red on his forehead 'I am the poisoner of the clinics'."
– “Serial killer” –
After initially claiming during the investigation that most cases were due to "medical errors" by his colleagues or to therapeutic risks, Frédéric Péchier admitted that among the 30 cases attributed to him, 12 were poisonings, five of which were fatal. However, he denies being responsible.
Thérèse Brunisso sought to counter two arguments often raised by the defense. First, that there was no evidence in this case: "we have a whole body of evidence which leads" to the accused and "only" to him, she dismissed.
It is also "false" to claim that "you have to be a raving lunatic to do that," because "mental illness, madness, is not necessary to characterize a serial killer," and "it is the facts that determine guilt," she explained.
Defense attorney Randall Schwerdorffer will argue for acquittal on Monday.
The accused, who is appearing in court as a free man, faces a life sentence. The verdict is expected by December 19th.
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