In a house in the Parisian suburbs, on December 17, 2012, a woman is found in a state of dumbfoundedness, tied to a chair, a knife handle driven into her private parts. An "A" was traced by a blade on his stomach. Her name is Maureen Kearney, she is the trade unionist at Areva.
For years, Maureen has been defending the interests of the flagship of French nuclear power. She is close to Anne Lauvergeon, frequents ministers and captains of industry. When she learns that Areva's sworn enemy, EDF, is ready to sign a contract with the Chinese that could lead to technology transfer, she steps up to the plate, alerting politicians. Until this day of December 2012.
https://www.liberation.fr/livres/2019/0 ... e_1749284/
Victim of a state affair or great storyteller? Almost seven years after the discovery, in December 2012, of Maureen Kearney strapped to a chair in her pavilion in the Paris suburbs, an "A" engraved on her stomach and a knife handle stuck in the vagina, the case remains a mystery. Was the ex-unionist from Areva really embarrassing the obscure negotiations of the French nuclear industry with China, or did she take her role as secretary of the European group committee a little too much to heart? To the point of staging her aggression - as several elements of the file suggest - in order to defeat these negotiations which, according to her, threatened thousands of jobs in France?
To these questions, the journalist Caroline Michel-Aguirre does not answer. Author of the Syndicalist, the head of the Obs investigation cell does not provide additional information on the reality of Maureen Kearney's aggression. No more, in any case, than what the press has revealed so far, and especially the two hearings which have been held in court. And which led, for the first, to a conviction of the former trade unionist, in July 2017, to five months suspended prison sentence and 5 euros fine for "false denunciation"; and for the second, to an acquittal for the same facts in November 000.
repertoire
The richness of the work - in addition to its writing qualities - resides rather in the elements of context that it brings to the case. Such are the threats made by the worrying intermediary Alexandre Djouhri (close to Henri Proglio, CEO of EDF at the time) against Anne Lauvergeon, number 1 of Areva, while EDF was negotiating secretly with the China technology transfers that could weaken Areva. But also, and perhaps above all, in the information on Maureen herself and her family, while the person had closed herself up like an oyster, and for years, after her actual or supposed assault.
We thus discover a little better this English teacher of Irish origin, who entered Areva somewhat by chance to teach her mother tongue to executives, and who, over the years, rose to the highest level of the union hierarchy, in a world - nuclear power - largely male. A surprising investment for someone who is neither French - nuclear power has a strong national dimension - nor linked to the core business of this industry. A true network woman, whose repertoire contained a whole part of the political class - on the right and on the left - who quickly forgot her number after her alleged assault. Bernard Cazeneuve, elected from a highly nuclear-powered department (La Manche), in regular contact with it before the attack and then disappeared, came out of it little grown up. Only Anne Lauvergeon seems to have supported her in her ordeal.
The journalist also reveals her ghosts to us: Maureen, a young adult, had already suffered a rape, before learning, a few years later, that her own son had experienced a similar tragedy. A strong and fragile woman at the same time, energetic and deeply invested in her union responsibilities, but also, in the end, on the verge of sending everything for a walk. According to Caroline Michel-Aguirre, her replacement at the head of the European group committee was already scheduled, a month before her attack.
Similar case
We also discover a living maid, surrounded by a loving husband, faithful girlfriends and messy friends who spend until late at night in their suburban house or on their vacation spot to remake the world, between joints and beers. In short, nothing of an isolated woman lends itself to an incredible staging to attract attention. Even if the pains of the past and the burden of her function led her to be followed by a psychiatrist.
Finally, the book ends with a disturbing chapter: Caroline Michel-Aguirre's meeting with the victim of a similar case. Six years earlier, in June 2006, the wife of a Veolia executive was found raped and slashed in the stomach in her suburban pavilion, while her husband was in open conflict with his management. However, the management of Veolia was occupied at the time by Henri Proglio, who was "nothing", recalls Alain Marsaud quoted in the book, without Alexandre Djouhri. An attack which, there too, left no trace, and of which the victim, once again, was suspected by the investigators of having invented everything… The Kearney affair is perhaps far from having revealed all its mysteries