A former Conservative MP was convicted of deliberately crushing his wife by driving a Mercedes-Benz in France.
67-year-old David Turtle was convicted of murder by a French court and sentenced to 14 years in prison.
The court in Agen in southwestern France ruled that Turtle deliberately drove his RV onto his wife Stephanie after a dispute over a TV show.
The police found the victim under the Mercedes-Benz in March 2017; an autopsy revealed that her chest was crushed and her internal injuries were serious, causing suffocation.
Kameari Claim this was a terrible accident When he drove away, he didn’t know that his 50-year-old wife was in front of or under the car. The defense lawyer said that the defendant loved his wife, had no motive to kill her, and there was no evidence that he did so. Turtle was taken from the court to prison, but it has been announced that he will appeal the sentence.
However, Maître Matthieu Chirez, who represented the victim’s sister Catherine Seymour, told the court: “It is impossible for him to be unable to explain what happened. Said Stephanie Turtle voluntarily lay under the wheel. [of the vehicle], Knowing that he wants to drive away, it doesn’t make sense. “
Chirez said that since the accident, Turtles changed his view of the incident. Experts say that if the car does not accelerate significantly, it will be difficult for the turtles to run over his wife.
“This is what he did, he knocked her down… in those few seconds, this was the horror he did to her,” Chirez told the court.
Prosecutor Patrick Serra said: “When David Turtle was driving past her, it’s impossible not to know that Stephanie Turtle was in front of the car.” He said there was no evidence that the body was towed away by a vehicle. He said that as soon as the defendant obtained the investigation file, he began to change his statement.
“He said:’I am the only one who knows what happened’, but that doesn’t mean that he is telling the truth… when he presses [accelerator] Pedal, he crushed her, he couldn’t ignore the fact that she was in front,” Serra added.
Maître Laurent Bruneau from Turtle’s defense team argued that although Turtle killed his wife, he did not intentionally do so, and stated that the case was based on the assumption that the defendant was guilty.
He said that his client was tried for inconsistency in his interpretation of the incident, and asked: “After his wife’s death, in this situation, can anyone maintain continuity?”
“Losing her, he lost everything. Of course he killed her, otherwise how could it be? But it was an accident. He didn’t see her and kept saying that.”
Major Alan Xiaowan, a former police officer investigating the death, told the court that none of the witnesses believed that it was an accident during the interrogation related to the death. He said that Turtle’s wife could not have walked to the car without seeing her.
In her saved blog, Stephanie Turtle ponders whether her husband cherishes his new car more than her, saying that he “spoiled” the car and devoted almost obsessive attention to it.
A 63-year-old friend who lives nearby, Jayne Clarke, said that David Turtle, who had never studied French, was not satisfied with his new home.
“I think David is very anxious and he doesn’t want to stay in France anymore. I think David is quitting [bed-and-breakfast] For the project, his enthusiasm seems to have diminished,” Carmen said.
Clinical psychologist Catherine Goupil told the court that Turtle had received 140 letters of support from friends who did not understand how he could be charged with murder. She said the couple had a “quite fusion relationship.”
The couple met for a single vacation in Turkey in 1996 and have no children. He quit his job as a Mercedes dealer and resigned his position as a Conservative Party member of the North District of Bournemouth Kinson. Stephanie left the human resources department of the Dorset County Council in 2016 and moved to Praysac to operate. Homestay.
“I love my wife, I love her more than before, because my heart is broken after this happened,” he said. “Stephanie is the love of my life. It took me 40 years to find her,” Turtle told the court.
After the three-day hearing, Chirez told the Guardian: “David Turtle’s description of the incident is meaningless. It is completely impossible that he did not see her or hear her that night. So obviously, he deliberately knocked her over and killed her.
“The technical investigation confirmed this fact. This is the jury’s decision. Stephanie’s family, especially her sister, were relieved and will continue to show what they have shown since this terrible crime happened. Decent. She is very close to her sister, which is obviously a huge loss for her.”
He said he and his colleagues will continue to help the victim’s family.
