With more details emerging today of the bizarre kidnap ordeal of an extended French family that ended in a double-murder in Bragança, the man suspected of causing the drama has told a court in Vila Nova de Foz Côa that he is the real victim.
Cédric Prizzon – a former policeman/ night club bouncer – blamed the French justice system, which removed custody of his 13-year-old son, Élio (after Prizzon had kidnapped him…) and the two women that he is suspected of having killed for ‘going against him’.
Reports today are peremptory: Prizzon has been remanded in preventive custody. He has been prohibited from contact with his son and much younger daughter, and he potentially awaits extradition to France where he will be tried for kidnap, murder and very possibly a number of other related crimes.
As to the awful journey that Prizzon inflicted on his victims and their children, it appears that initially his partner, Angela Legobien-Cadillac, helped him. The reports of both women being transported ‘sedated’ were not correct. Only Audrey Cavalié – the mother of Élio – was sedated. Angela travelled with Audrey in the back of the van that Prizzon was driving, ostensibly to ensure that she remained calm.
“Things got out of control” at some point in Bragança, writes Correio da Manhã today, and this is when Prizzon is thought to have killed Audrey (by alledgedly strangling her). At this point, there was no indication that he may have been planning to kill Angela. According to the account of the young son, Angela ‘got into an argument’ with his father after the group spied a helicopter overhead, and this is when she too will have been killed.
Fortunately, Elio’s statement to police suggests he was not a witness to either of the women’s deaths.
In France, where the story has generated a great deal of grief and disbelief, news outlets are praising the GNR patrol that stopped Prizzon, at a routine police stop near Mêda (Guarda district) last Tuesday, for being ‘guardian angels’ who saved the two children, potentially from their own deaths.
RTP reports that the court considers there is strong evidence that Prizzon has committed eight crimes, including kidnap, murder and the desecration of two corpses. He is also cited for domestic violence against his 18-month old daughter Giuluya.
Reports that Prizzon is to be extradited to France to be tried there for his crimes are also in doubt. RTP maintains that “Cédric Prizzon will not be extradited because the most serious of the alleged crimes were committed in Portugal.”
Source material: Correio da Manhã/ RTP
