The doubt benefited the accused. The Bobigny correctional court on Tuesday released the coach and former member of the French judo team Alain Schmitt of domestic violence against Olympic champion Margaux Pinot, after a hearing opposing contradictory versions.
“A court is never there to say who is telling the truth and who is lying. In this case we do not have enough evidence of guilt. The court releases you, ”declared the president of the court to Alain Schmitt late in the evening, after his immediate appearance.
“It was not a judo fight, it was punches”
During the hearing, the coach gave the story of a fight that looked like a “tornado” between two lovers with a stormy relationship. Margaux Pinot has described her “fear” in the face of the punches that rained on her during the night from Saturday to Sunday in her apartment in Blanc-Mesnil in Seine-Saint-Denis. “It was not a judo fight, it was punches,” breathed the Olympic mixed team champion at the last Olympic Games in Tokyo, her face swollen from the bruises surrounding her eyes.
“I have never hit a woman in my life, it’s nonsense”, for his part repeated at the hearing Alain Schmitt, his face marked by bruises. The prosecution had requested a one-year suspended sentence for “very serious violence, even for a first-time offender”. The court passed “next to a certain number of dependent elements”, such as those neighbors who heard her calls for help, and to whom she took refuge, regretted Me Stéphane Maugendre, the lawyer of the judokate.
Margaux Pinot describes herself under “psychological influence”
Margaux Pinot, also supported by representatives of the French Judo Federation, spoke of a “psychological hold” on the part of a trainer for whom she had “admiration” but who constantly belittled her, making her lose confidence. in her. But “with the strength that this man has, he has the capacity to do much more harm than that”, pleaded Me Malik Behloul, adviser to Alain Schmitt, affirming that the sportswoman had lied on the whole line.
The coach and former member of the French judo team was to leave France five hours after the incident, heading to Israel where he is expected to take the reins of the women’s national team. Bronze medalist at the 2013 Worlds (-81 kg), he envisioned his departure as a “real change of life” after six years as a coach with the Etoile Sportive du Blanc-Mesnil where he coached athletes like Madeleine Malonga.
