Lover goes on trial for Edouard Stern’s murder

The mistress of one of the wealthiest bankers in France, Edouard Stern, has admitted that she shot him four times in a "crime of passion" during a sado-masochist sex session. Cecile Brossard, 40, a French artist and call-girl, went on trial yesterday in Geneva for killing her 50-year-old lover with his own pistol in February 2005.

The murder of France's 38th richest man rocked the genteel world of Swiss banking when his body was found, dressed in a flesh-coloured latex bodysuit and mask and bound to a chair, in his flat in Geneva. There was speculation that Stern, who had a reputation as an aggressive and uncompromising deal-maker, had been targeted by the Russian mafia. But Brossard subsequently confessed to shooting him after an argument over $1 million.

Yesterday, at the start of the nine-day trial, the court heard how Brossard and Stern had a tempestuous four-year relationship. The pair quarrelled over Brossard’s demands for $1 million as "a token of his love". Stern first agreed but then changed his mind following a dispute, blocking the money after Brossard refused to give it back.

In her confession statement to police, Brossard claimed that she shot him after being provoked by Stern during a sado-masochistic sex session. Brossard, who was dressed as a dominatrix, lost control after Stern taunted her, saying, "One million dollars is a lot of money to pay for a whore".

At one point yesterday, Brossard interrupted the trial to address Stern’s family. "I would like to ask for forgiveness, but we cannot seek forgiveness for something so abominable," she said, adding: "I don’t want this trial to sully his memory but only to say how I got here." Stern's estranged wife Beatrice and their three adult children (including Mathilde, pictured left, with her mother) sat impassively as she spoke.

Their lawyer, Marc Bonnant, plans to argue that Stern's murder was not a crime of passion, which carries a maximum jail sentence of 10 years, but a financially motivated murder, which carries a maximum 20-year prison term.

Brossard spoke warmly of the man she ended up killing. "He was an intelligent man, a refined man, an extraordinary man in every way,” she said.

Having spent 12 sessions in a psychiatric clinic since her arrest, Brossard believes she is still "in contact" with her lover and that they are "united for eternity", her lawyer, Alec Reymond, said. She is expected to be sentenced on June 19.