An unemployed French engineer has gone on trial accused of shooting dead three women he blamed for his failure to find a job.
Gabriel Fortin, 48, allegedly killed two human resources directors and a jobs centre employee, and attempted to kill another worker, after a string of dismissals.
“These are lies,” Fortin told the courthouse in the city of Valence, south-east France, after a reading of the summary of facts in the case.
He went on to point fingers at elected officials and magistrates, who he said were “responsible” for his “situation” by not having responded to his numerous complaints regarding being dismissed from jobs in 2006 and 2009.
“I was a victim,” the former engineer said.
Investigators say his unanswered complaints may have fuelled his desire for revenge.
They also claim he meticulously plotted the bloody January 2021 attack. Three of the four victims who were targeted were associated with his being fired from one company and a government agency.
Described as the “HR killer” by local media, Fortin faces a life sentence if found guilty.
The victims involved in the case include Patricia Pasquion, an executive at a Pole Emploi employment agency in Valence, and Géraldine Caclin, the head of human resources at the environmental services company Faun. Fortin is also accused of causing the death of the human resources director Estelle Luce, a mother of two who was shot in her car, and of shooting and wounding the human resources manager Bertrand Meichel at his home.
France’s then prime minister Jean Castex said at the time the killings had put “the whole country into mourning”.
Fortin’s mother took the stand on Tuesday, describing him as having been a thoughtful child who grew up without a father, before bursting into tears on seeing him in the dock.
The trial is expected to continue until 30 June.
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