A French plasterer has been sentenced to 30 years behind bars after he killed his wife and hid her body.
The disappearance of Cédric Jubillar’s wife, Delphine, gripped France during the Covid lockdown.
Five years after she went missing, Delphine’s body has not been found.
Delphine, 33, vanished on December 15 2020. Jubillar called the police at 4am claiming she had gone out to walk their dogs and had never returned. But nobody saw her leave, and no evidence ever supported that claim.
A massive manhunt ensued with over 1000 people searching the vast countryside while divers checked nearby rivers for any evidence of what might have happened to the mother of three.
Jurors believe that the 37-year-old killed his wife in a fit of rage because she planned to leave him for another man and he then hid her body.
And at the conclusion of the trial in the southern town of Albi, Jubillar was convicted for her murder
However the lack of any trace of blood or indication of a crime scene made the case one of the most puzzingly in modern French legal history leading to much speculation as to whether Jubillar was a killer or a victim of over-enthusiastic investigators.
During the four week trial Jubillar’s defence claimed it was a one-sided investigation.
Cédric Jubillar has been sentenced to 30 years behind bars for the murder of his wife Delphine
A missing person poster of Delphine. Five years after she went missing, Delphine’s body has not been found
In a closing plea, Emmanuelle Franck, his lawyer, described the case as ‘a machine to crush where bad faith meets incompetence’, the Daily Telegraph reported.
She told jurors: ‘We have created a criminal to explain a crime. This is a castle of sand. When you cannot prove, you imagine. When you cannot find, you invent.’
Ms Franck argued that Jubillar is a man ‘who can barely organise his own toolbox’ and he is expected to have carried out the ‘perfect crime’.
Prosecutors argued that the case followed a classic pattern of domestic violence – jealousy, control, rage, then denial.
Pierre Aurignac, the chief prosecutor, said: ‘To defend the idea of Mr Jubillar’s innocence requires dismissing four experts, silencing 19 witnesses and killing the sniffer dog.’
The jury were told by prosecutors that although there was ‘no body and no blood’, there was ‘no plausible alternative either’.
‘No matter how you look at this case, you come to the same conclusion – guilt,’ said Mr Aurignac.
Damning evidence of Jubillar’s crime came from the testimony from his relatives.
Damning evidence came from Nadine Jubillar, Jubillar’s mother, told the court that she regretted not taking her son seriously when he said: ‘I’m fed up, she annoys me, I’m going to kill her’
In his final sentence in the court Jubillar simply said: ‘I have done absolutely nothing to Delphine.’
His mother Nadine told the court that she regretted not taking her son seriously when he said: ‘I’m fed up, she annoys me, I’m going to kill her, I’m going to bury her, no one will find her.’
A letter written by the couple’s son read aloud to the court accused Jibillar of mistreating both his mother and himself.
He described being beaten, humiliated and belittled, and said he believed his father ‘did something bad’ to his mother.
The child also revealed that he had witnessed the couple arguing the night of her disappearance and they discussed their separation.
After the verdict, Jubillar remained defiant that he was innocent.
In his final sentence in the court he simply said: ‘I have done absolutely nothing to Delphine.’
The defence has already said it would appeal, insisting that ‘reasonable doubt remains overwhelming’.
The case has rocked France and reignited a debate across the country over how the police should respond to domestic abuse, and whether the justice system is equipped to handle missing person cases that leave no trace.
