Story By: Ernest Bio Bogore, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency:  Newsflash

A woman who shot her abusive boyfriend dead after he told her he was going to smash her face in has been jailed for 10 years in France.

The defendant, Alexandra Richard, 42, appeared at a court in the French city of Rouen where she was convicted of killing her partner Sebastien Gest.

According to the newspaper France Bleu, the events took place at their home in Montreuil-en-Caux in the department of Seine-Maritime in the French region of Normandy on 16th October 2016.

The accused is said to have fired a shotgun at point-blank range at her drunk husband, who had just got up from his chair and threatened to “smash her face in”.

According to Le Figaro, she then called the police who arrived on the scene and confirmed the victim’s death.

France Bleu said that the man was known to the police as violent and had been convicted of shooting a rival in 1999.

Richard reportedly filed a complaint of domestic violence which led to criminal mediation in January 2016.

Le Figaro said the couple met two years earlier at their workplace, a veranda construction company. Sebastien Gest was a site manager, his girlfriend worked in the after-sales department.

In the stand, the defendant said that she did not intend to kill him, she just wanted to run away with the children.

Nathalie Tomasini, the defendant’s lawyer, said: “Alexandra Richard is a beautiful person, she was the ideal prey. There was domination and control, a form of control that allowed physical, sexual and economic abuse.

“She had to be at his service, whether it be sexually or for household chores. He considered her his whore and his housekeeper.”

Rose-Marie Capitaine, the lawyer for the parents of the deceased, said at the hearing: “There were excesses in him, but let’s not present him as a torturer, let us avoid these excesses.”

Alexandra Richard was found guilty and sentenced to 10 years in prison in the evening, according to France Bleu.

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