A Frenchman convicted of the murder of his wife who disappeared nearly six years ago but whose body was never found has confessed from his jail cell to killing her.
Cedric Jubillar, 38, was sentenced to 30 years in prison in October for murdering Delphine Jubillar, 33, following a trial that gripped France but in which he had always maintained his innocence.
Delphine, a nurse, went missing in rural southern France in December 2020 at the height of the Covid pandemic but her body was never found.
But in a dramatic twist, just over two months before his appeal was due to be heard, Jubillar has written a ‘confession’ for the first time admitting his involvement, his lawyer Pierre Debuisson told a news conference.
The plasterer is ready to ‘cooperate fully with the judicial authorities’ and tell investigators where the body is located after hiding the corpse on the night of December 15 to 16, 2020, he said.
He expressed hope that Jubillar’s move will allow their two young children to ‘grieve and give Delphine a proper burial’, adding his client ‘clearly regrets’ his actions.
‘It was the worst thing he did in his life,’ the lawyer added. It remains unclear how Delphine Jubillar was killed.
His legal team now believe it is impossible that the appeal trial can take place as scheduled in September, as their client will need to be re-interrogated and searches for the body take place.
Cédric Jubillar, 38, was convicted of the murder of his wife who disappeared in 2020 although her body was never found but has now confessed from his jail cell to killing her
Pierre Debuisson, one of the new lawyer representing Cedric Jubillar, told the media that after five years of denying his involvement in the crime, Jubillar has admitted to the murder of his wife
Delphine went missing in rural southern France in December 2020 at the height of the Covid pandemic but her body was never found
Debuisson said Jubillar would give further details when interrogated.
In his confession letter, he mentions a dispute between the couple but does not give further details.
He had been convicted on the basis of a string of corroborating evidence, despite the lack of a body or any DNA evidence linking him to the crime, making the case one of the most puzzling in modern French legal history.
Jurors came to the conclusion that Jubillar murdered Delphine in a fit of rage after she asked for a divorce while having an affair with another man, despite some earlier claims made in court that he was the victim of overenthusiastic investigators.
‘We are relieved for the children,’ said Malika Chmani, lawyer for the two young children.
‘Now it is important that he tell us where the body is. I believe that is what will happen – at any rate, that is what we hope for,’ she added.
On the morning of her disappearance, 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 Delphine.
A team of divers of the French Gendarmerie inspect the L’Endrevie body of water in Blaye-les-Mines, southern France on December 22, 2020, as they search for Delphine Jubillar
Chief Prosecutor Pierre Aurignac said in his closing plea at the trial: ‘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.
Emmanuelle Franck, Jubillar’s lawyer, told jurors, per the Daily Telegraph: ‘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.’
The most damning evidence of Jubillar’s crime came from the testimony from his relatives, including his mother Nadine who told the court 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 Jubillar 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.
In his final sentence in the court he simply said: ‘I have done absolutely nothing to Delphine.’
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