Rumours that kill: the Loïc Sécher affair | Enquêtes criminelles | W9

On November 25 2000, in the Ingrandes sur Loire junior high school in the Maine et Loire, a worrying rumour is circulating. A child in 9th grade, Emilie Rédureau is said to have been the victim of a sexual predator. Concerned, her teachers call her in. Emilie doesn’t give the name of her aggressor, but provides an approximate description, “a man, alcoholic, who knew my parents”. Very quickly, Patrice Rédureau, the girl’s father, realises that his daughter is talking about one of their neighbours: a certain Loïc Sécher, 40, an unemployed farm worker, a bachelor, alcoholic and depressive. In the small village of La Chapelle Saint Sauveur, where he lives, Loïc Sécher doesn’t enjoy a good reputation. They say that when he’s drunk he goes out of control! And now Emilie is accusing him of three sexual aggressions. When interviewed by the gendarmes, the suspect denies any implication in the deeds he is being accused of. But his problem… he has no alibi. Very quickly, this man on the skids turns into the ideal guilty person, especially as other women in the village accuse him of attempted rape. The case seems all tied up when the forces of law receive a letter that reduces all the certainties of the investigators to nothing.