Overview

• The cour d'assises de l'Aisne began hearing the case Monday, with sessions scheduled through Wednesday and a verdict expected that day.
• Prosecutors cite a forensic match between Pascal Lafolie's DNA and traces on Desnoix's scrunchie, identified during a separate domestic-violence case in 2021.
• In custody in 2021, Lafolie made statements describing a forced sexual act before later retracting them; he now denies the murder and claims memory gaps.
• Investigators examined and ruled out the involvement of his brother, whom the accused has posthumously implicated in shifting accounts.
• Lafolie, 58, remains in provisional detention and faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted, with prior convictions for rape and sexual assault in 1997 and 2002 noted in the record.