New Caledonia: gendarmerie colonel Eric Steiger, convicted of domestic violence, asked ê – Franceinfo

The new commander of the gendarmerie New Caledonia give up. Eric Steiger, who was the subject of a conviction for domestic violence, “chose to ask to be relieved of his duties in New Caledonia” after discussing his personal situation with the director general of the national gendarmerie, announces a press release from the Ministry of the Interior.

The media’s revelation of the conviction sparked an uproar in the territory, elected officials demanding the replacement of the colonel. According to the gendarme’s lawyer, the facts of domestic violence date back to spring 2018. In June, his wife files a handrail and then a complaint a few days later. She accuses her husband in particular of having violently pinned her on the bed and pressed against a cupboard, twisting her head. Eric Steiger in turn files a complaint for violence against his wife, which he will later withdraw.

In February 2020, the colonel of the gendarmerie was tried for the first time and sentenced to six months in prison for violence against his wife. During his appeal trial last May, the Court was more lenient and sentenced him to a fine of 6,000 euros, with the sentence not being entered in the criminal record.

These facts took place in a “painful context of separation of the couple after 20 years of common life”, reacted the national gendarmerie contacted by franceinfo. It indicates that the officer reported through hierarchical channels on all the stages which concerned the procedure, and that the sentence pronounced on appeal did not “no obstacle to the gendarmerie appointing him to his current post” in New Caledonia.