FRANCE:THE FORMER owner of one of Paris's best-loved patisseries has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for the murder of his pastry chef.
Xavier Philippe, whose courteous manner behind the counter of L'Avion Délices endeared him to his well-heeled clientele in the Marais district, burst into tears as he was found guilty of killing Christophe Belle.
"It's not possible, it wasn't me," cried Philippe, who has protested his innocence since Mr Belle's body was discovered, with three bullet wounds to the head, in a wood in May 2005.
The prosecution said the killing had been "a cold-blooded crime which had been perfectly thought out and planned for weeks in advance".
The prosecution's evidence hinged on a message Mr Belle left on his boss's mobile phone at 2.56am the day he died, telling him: "I'll be there in five or 10 minutes."
It said the message was evidence that Philippe (51) had planned to lie in wait for his assistant in the woods around the Parisian suburb of Créteil, arguing he had murdered the father of three for financial gain.
Mr Belle had noticed that tens of thousands of euros had gone missing from the shop's accounts, which Philippe admitted during the investigation but which he had been unwilling to make public.
Vowing to appeal against the verdict, Philippe's lawyer insisted on Sunday that the evidence against his client was circumstantial. DNA tests on his body failed to provide a link to anyone and the weapon was never found.
It was not just the telephone message, however, but Philippe's colourful past which led to the guilty verdict. It emerged that the patisserie owner had already spent three years behind bars for offences including fighting, car theft and possession of firearms.
And in evidence which stunned the court at Créteil, a former girlfriend testified that he had once bragged to her about having "bumped off" a man who was last seen in 1988. - ( Guardian service)