FRANCE: A retired French soldier accused of drugging 27 of his children's tennis rivals yesterday faced the parents of the young man whose death he is accused of causing.
In a tearful scene at the high court in Mont-de-Marsan, southwest France, Christophe Fauviau (46), addressed Bernard and Bernadette Lagardère, whose son Alexandre, then 25, died in a fatal car crash after he was drugged by Fauviau on July 3rd, 2003.
"He said he was sorry for Alexandre's death," recounted Aude Serbos, a correspondent for Sud Ouest newspaper who was in the courtroom yesterday.
"The parents wrapped their arms around each other, clutched handkerchiefs. They were weeping. They put their hands over their ears so they couldn't hear what Fauviau was saying."
Fauviau retired from his position as a French army helicopter instructor in 1999 to promote the tennis careers of his teenage son Maxime and daughter Valentine.
Between 2000 and 2003, he admits to putting temesta (lorazepam), a prescription tranquilliser and sedative, in the mineral water bottles of six young men who played against Maxime in regional tennis tournaments, and 21 girls who challenged Valentine in national matches. Valentine, now 15, is considered one of the best tennis players in her age group in France.
The jury trial is scheduled to end on March 10th. Fauviau's wife Catherine and children are to testify on March 7th.
Son and daughter did not know their father was drugging their rivals, and have continued to play tennis since he was arrested in August 2003.
If convicted on charges of unintentionally causing death by administering toxic substances, Fauviau could be sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Most of Fauviau's victims complained of headaches, dizziness and fatigue, and several were hospitalised. On July 3rd, 2003, Alexandre Lagardère gave up after the first set, slept for two hours at a friend's house, then drove home to his parents.
After a few kilometres, he crashed into a plane tree. Tests established he had taken the equivalent of four to six lorazepam tablets six hours before the accident - the amount of time the drug takes to reach peak efficiency.
"I never would have imagined that my acts could have fatal consequences," Fauviau said in court. He wept as the charge sheet was read, looked at his feet, wrung his hands, and avoided eye contact with his victims.
Fauviau claimed that each time he drugged a tennis player, he took the same dose to calm himself down. He said he could no longer bear the anguish of watching his children on a tennis court.
Fauviau's lawyer, Pierre Blazy, said psychiatrists' reports established his client was in an altered mental state that diminished his responsibility.
He has since undergone psychotherapy in prison and is allegedly cured.
Alexandre Lagardère's death is all the more tragic because gendarmes began investigating Fauviau two days earlier. On June 27th, 2003, Sébastien Bats had played a match against Maxime Fauviau. Before the match, he saw Christophe Fauviau holding his mineral water bottle in the club house, decided not to drink it, but kept it for analysis.
The following day, Benoît Tauziède collapsed in the locker room after losing a match against Maxime Fauviau, and was hospitalised for the rest of the day. The young men alerted Renaud Lahitète, the lawyer for the Acquitaine tennis league, whose own son Hugo had fallen ill while playing against Maxime Fauviau two years earlier. Gendarmes began an investigation.
In Fauviau's defence, Blazy is expected to argue that lorazepam is an anti-anxiety drug, not a sleeping pill, and that the link between Fauviau's drugging Lagardère and the fatal car crash has not been sufficiently proven. Blazy also claims the tennis league knew what Fauviau was doing and failed to stop him.
Lahitète has described Fauviau's behaviour as absurd. "The boy had no hope of rising beyond regional level, and it wasn't necessary for his daughter, because she is exceptionally talented and didn't need that to prove how good she was."
Jacques Dupré, the secretary general of the French tennis federation, said it could happen again. "With the pressure of so much media attention, and the amounts of money involved, some parents are ready to do anything, and the consequences can be dreadful, as this case shows," he said.