A Fench woman is standing trial for the murder of her alleged abusive stepfather turned husband.
What We Know:
- Valerie Bacot, 40, admitted to shooting her husband Daniel Polette in self-defense, in 2016. In her bestselling book Tout Le Monde Savait (Everyone Knew), Bacot describes how she grabbed his pistol and shot Polette out of fear stating, “it’s with that same gun, in another forest one day and so he wouldn’t kill us, that I killed him.” Bacot claims Polette forced her into prostitution and the night of his murder, she was involved in an altercation with a client.
- Polette was originally Bacot’s stepfather and was 25 years older than her. According to Bacot, Polette started raping her at age 12 and though he and her mother weren’t officially married, Bacot called him “stepfather” throughout her book. Polette went to prison for two and a half years in 1996 for raping a minor but continued his abuse of Bacot once he was released. Polette impregnated Bacot at age 17, and she had four children with him.
- Two of Bacot and Polette’s children helped Bacot cover up the murder, by burying the body. They both received a 6-month suspended prison sentence in 2019, for their part in their father’s murder. The children corroborated Bacot’s claims of the abuse she received from Polette throughout their relationship.
- A court-appointed psychiatrist determined that Bacot was “clearly under Polette’s control.” Bacot recounted the various times Polette beat her, forced her to marry him, and threatened to kill their kids. Her lawyers believe that there needs to be “a desperate woman to kill in order to survive” policy for those in domestic situations. They said that women like Bacot, “who are victims of violence have no protection.”
- Prosecutors believe Bacot premeditated her husband’s murder, while her lawyers are rejecting those claims. Although Bacot is admitting to killing Polette, a petition for her release was set up and she has received close to 600,000 signatures on it.
- Many locals find Bacot’s case similar to the case of French woman Jacqueline Sauvage. In 2012, Sauvage shot her husband in the back three times, the day after her son’s suicide. She was sentenced to 10 years in jail, however, she served three years and then was pardoned by former President Francois Hollande in 2016.
- Janine Bonaggiunta, one of Bacot’s lawyers, informed the media that “the extreme violence that Bacot suffered for 25 years and the fear that her daughter would be next” pushed her to her breaking point. Throughout her book, Bacot would say she was “afraid all the time” and “had to put an end to it.” According to CNN, France has a big problem with femicides…with 43 so far this year. In 2020 there were 90 deaths of women at the hands of their partners and in 2019 there were 146.
Bacot’s trial is taking place in Chalon-sur-Saône and should last about a week.
