Hi guys, I hope things are going well for you!

Today, I’m telling you about a case that terrified the population of the Somme department in Northern France when it happened, and that still gets evoked in courtrooms today.

Ladies, gentlemen, and everyone in between, today we talk about Jean-Paul Leconte, whose name actually means “the tale”. There’s a tale alright, a horrible one.

An incorrigible child

Jean-Paul Leconte greets the world on April 4th, 1966. He’s born in a family that is already overwhelmed, and his parents only wait 4 months before giving him to his grandparents. His grandmother, Catherine, takes on the heavy task of raising him on her farm in Méaulte, in the Somme.

She treats him like her son, which is surprising considering the type of childhood stories I usually tell, and spoils him rotten. It is maybe this infinite affection, combined with the confusion that comes with parental abandonment, that emboldens him to terrorize everyone he can. At school, he has a habit of taking weaker kids out of sight to beat them up, but he barely gets any punishment. He’s so comfortable with his very forgiving grandparents that when his biological parents try to take him back, he refuses and turns his troubled sights to them instead, playing with their nerves. One time, he even makes them believe that he fell off a cliff during a family outing.

Once he reaches adolescence, the childish misbehavior stops and we step into actually criminal territory. School stops, no real career starts, and offenses are plenty: robbery, fraud and soon…sexual assaults.

A sadistic pervert

In 1988, Jean-Paul is prosecuted for indecent assault, but that doesn’t stop him. In 1989, he rapes two young women and an 8-year-old girl, using a screwdriver to threaten them. With his youngest victim, he first pretends to be the brother of a school friend and tells her that her friend needs help with homework. The little girl climbs into his car, but he rapidly tells her the truth: they aren’t going to her friend’s house. Instead, he brings her to a field and rapes her before leaving her on the side of the road. A passing motorist stops her and brings her to the authorities. Jean-Paul is arrested two weeks later, having fled to the Alsace, near the German border. His victims recognize him, but he admits nothing.

The investigators examine his life, and soon discover that he has a 20-year-old girlfriend, who is as unlucky as his victims. She’s going through hell with Jean-Paul, who often assaults her, and maces her when she refuses intercourse.

In 1991, Jean-Paul is sentenced to 17 years in prison for the three rapes. During his detention, he stays in contact with his grandmother, who forgives his wrongdoings, as usual. He asks for parole several times, but the psychological experts deem that he’s a remorseless pervert with a high risk for reoffending.

He’s finally released in May 2002 and moves back in with grandma. He keeps a low profile at first, but sadly can’t help himself.

Patricia

Patricia Leclercq is an ordinary 19-year-old girl. She hasn’t had an easy life, having to live in a foster family because her parents were deemed unfit to raise her. However, she’s starting to turn things around. She works, has friends and plans on moving to Amiens to begin her studies. She progressing towards a life often unexpected from a “foster kid”.

On the evening of July 6th, 2002, she leaves the fast-food where she works in Albert and start biking home. She’ll never make it. She crosses paths with Jean-Paul, who is driving back to Méaulte. He tries to get her to stop, but she doesn’t so he hits her bike with his car. She hits her head when she falls and loses consciousness, becoming completely vulnerable to Jean-Paul’s evil. He touches her and masturbates over her body before strangling her. Once he’s done, he drives over her body twice with his car, hides her body and leaves. He’ll later say that Patricia’s ordeal lasted for about twenty minutes.

The next day, her foster mom reports her missing. Her bike and bag are quickly found, but not her. Authorities start a wide search with patrols, dogs and helicopters, but it’s not far from where they started, behind a haystack in a field in the town of Ville-sur-Ancre, that her body is found, top pulled up and pants pulled down.

This murder sends a shiver down everyone’s spine in the area, because the discovery of Élodie Kulik, who was found raped, killed and burned after being kidnapped on the road, is still fresh in the collective memory. The image of a serial killer lurking in the shadows appears in a lot of minds, and investigators do their best to stop the next murder, which they tragically won’t be able to do. They give it their best shot though.

Two witnesses tell the authorities that they saw Patricia biking on the road around the time she disappeared, and that they saw a dark car driven by someone dressed in white near her at the same time. However, they can’t describe the driver further. The investigators still use this description to round up all corresponding sex offenders of the area and interrogate them. Jean-Paul is among them. A police officer pays him a visit in Méaulte and gets a warm welcome and even a “I was expecting you”. When he’s more formally interrogated at the station, Jean-Paul looks just as cooperative, and pushes it to the point of offering his DNA without any prompting. This cooperation plays in his favor, and the investigators release him and move to other suspects. This error soon costs another life.

Christelle

Christelle Dubuisson is 18 and just like Patricia, she didn’t get an easy start. Having spent some years in foster care, she lives with her father. She’s a confident girl who isn’t afraid to voice her opinion, but recently she has become more introverted, withdrawn. She still had projects though, like working in the beauty field.

In the night of August 21st, 2002, she leaves her friends in Corbie to go home to Villers-Bretonneux on foot. It’s an almost 2-hour walk through dark paths, and she soon walks into Jean-Paul, who is driving a van this time. He assaults her and stabs her, leaving her dead under the van, which he leaves right where it’s parked.

Christelle’s body is almost immediately discovered, her last fight being told all around her. There is her shoeprint on one of the van’s windows, and her blood up to a few meters away from the vehicle. She tried to get away until the last second.

She isn’t identifiable, so investigators have to go door-to-door in Villers-Bretonneux to try and get some information. Once there they encounter a man who tells them that yeah, his daughter didn’t come home last night, but he thought she’d ran away and didn’t report her disappearance. This man is Christelle’s father. Believe me, I see the face you’re making, it’ll get worse.

This murder, the third of its type in the area that year, puts everyone on edge. The three victim’s families get close, and Élodie Kulik’s father, Jacky, as well as Patricia Leclercq’s aunt, Andrée, attend Christelle’s funeral. Nicolas Sarkozy, Minister of Home Affairs at the time, meets them and puts pressure on the investigators to solve this case quickly. He, and everybody else for that matter, doesn’t know the twists and turns it will take to get to the truth.

Twists and turns before the truth

The van under which Christelle was found is stolen. It belongs to a construction company based in Bucquoy, in the nearby Pas-de-Calais department. A witness who lives next to the company’s warehouse reports seeing someone coming on a moped and living with the van on the evening of August 21st. According to him, the moped is a Peugeot 103, an old model. This lead doesn’t give much to investigators, but it will be revived by a much more important discovery.

In November 2002, a semen trace on Patricia’s body matches with Jean-Paul’s DNA, and the maniac is arrested on the 25th at 6am sharp in his grandmother’s house. His protestations don’t stop the investigators from conducting a search, during which they find a moped fitting the Bucquoy witness’ description, as well as clothes fitting the description given by the witness who saw Patricia on the day of her death.

Jean-Paul’s grandmother, even confronted with the evidence, stays delusional convinced of her dear grandson’s innocence, while Jean-Paul is already ranting about miscarriage of justice.

Once in the interrogation room, he is agitated to the point where he has to be restrained (much less cooperative than last time, huh), and keeps saying that the DNA found on Patricia isn’t his despite the 99.99% match. To absolutely nobody’s surprise, he is indicted and incarcerated.

During his detention, he is ruled out in Élodie Kulik’s murder, as he was still in prison when her body was found. And regarding Christelle, he almost gets ruled out too, for a disgusting reason.

Semen was found on her body, but it’s not Jean-Paul’s…it’s her father’s. I told you it was gonna get worse. Investigators, as shocked as we are, start to question Jean-Paul’s guilt and wondering if they are not faced with an incestuous monster who went too far. Pierre Dubuisson denies any wrongdoing at first, but ends up confessing to abusing his daughter. For that, he will get a two-year suspended a couple of years later (don’t look at me, I don’t make the rules). However, he is ruled out for the murder, since he doesn’t know how to drive. The investigators thus get back to Jean-Paul.

The Bucquoy witness recognizes his moped, and cloth fibers matching his clothes are found in the van. He still denies everything though, until dirt from the warehouse is found on his moped’s tires. Can’t lie that one out, pal. He struggles to stay afloat, and barely hides his sadism, smiling when the investigators show him pictures from Christelle’s autopsy.

A provocative defendant

The trial for Patricia Leclercq begins on January 31st, 2005, in Amiens. Jean-Paul Leconte must prove his innocence but doesn’t play his cards right. When he arrives at the courthouse, he looks at Andrée, Patricia’s aunt, and smiles while swiping his finger across his throat. He call’s his case “the Somme’s Outreau” (the Outreau case is a French miscarriage of justice case), but the prosecution plays a recording of a conversation he had with his grandmother in prison where he confesses to the murder (his grandma still supports him, btw). He denies being a sadist, but admits he’s fascinated by neo-nazis, having met some in jail, and their commitment to evil without remorse. In the end, he’s the only one surprised by the 22-to-life sentence he receives and immediately appeals.

The appeal in question happens in March 2007 in Beauvais. This time, Jean-Paul finally admits to the murder, but says that he didn’t admit to it to avoid hurting his grandmother. The murderer and sexual sadist doesn’t want to hurt people, how cute. He tells the court how it happened, and the one hurt is Andrée, who pushes through for her “nénette” (a cute nickname she had for Patricia). Jean-Paul’s life sentence is confirmed, but the 22-year minimum is removed.

The trial for Christelle Dubuisson’s murder begins in November 2008. Jean-Paul remains a provocative prick, even smiling and winking at Christelle’s little sister. He accuses Pierre Dubuisson of having killed his daughter, and the two liars have some kind of face-off in the courtroom. However, Jean-Paul is the one in the defendant’s booth here, so let’s keep our attention on him.

He still claims he’s innocent, but when the prosecutor tells him while showing pictures of Christelle’s body “It’s a horrible thing to do.”, he nods. “Yes, it’s a horrible thing to do”. Checkmate.

He’s sentenced to life in prison, and while he’s getting out of the courthouse, one of Christelle’s brothers yells “Trash! Go die in your hole, you fucking asshole!” Couldn’t have worded it better myself. Jean-Paul files an appeal, but ends withdrawing it, finally leaving normal people alone.

He is eligible for parole since 2020, but remains incarcerated, and knowing that makes me enjoy getting fresh air a little more, because I know that he can’t. He didn’t get any nicer in prison, and was convicted in 2025 for harassing and slandering a social worker who refused his advances. He’s probably not getting parole for the next 15 years at least, and that’s fine by me!

Tell me what you think about this case down below, or on r/Murder_Wine_Cheese or Bluesky. I hope you’ll find some money on the ground today, and I’ll see you next time!