THE mother of Marie Trintignant, the French actress, has called for the rock star accused of battering her to death in a hotel room in Lithuania to be given the harshest possible sentence if convicted at his trial, which starts this week.

Nadine Trintignant, 69, urged prosecutors to demand the maximum 15-year penalty for Bertrand Cantat, her daughter’s lover, who has been held in the former Soviet republic since her death last August.

“I hope he is severely punished,” she said last week. “I can’t bear the thought that one day he’ll be able to take strolls in the street, sit in a cafe, take his children onto his lap, when my daughter can’t do such things any more.”

Cantat is expected to plead guilty to manslaughter, which under Lithuanian law is punishable by up to four years in prison. Even a murder conviction could mean a penalty of six years at the most if his crime is judged to be the result of “extreme emotion” — the Lithuanian equivalent of a crime of passion.

In a statement made from prison through his lawyer, Cantat, 39, said: “It’s all a tragic accident. Marie’s death is a huge loss for me.”

A mild sentence would provoke outrage in France, which has been transfixed by the case. A heartrending book written by Nadine last year in memory of her 41-year-old daughter became a bestseller.

Public opinion is split: some argue that the singer was carried away by a fit of jealousy during a night of heavy drinking, others that he was a psychotic serial wife-beater.

Nadine, a film director, refers to Cantat simply as “the murderer” and claims he was motivated by a manic urge to possess her daughter.

In an interview last week with Stern, the German news magazine, she claimed that the court would hear evidence from one of Marie’s four children, Roman. Cantat’s estranged wife had once told him that the singer severely beat her twice and once chased her with a knife, Nadine said.

Virgis Papirtis, Cantat’s Lithuanian lawyer, has rejected the allegations. “I understand Nadine Trintignant’s grief, but she knows how Cantat behaved towards her daughter,” he said. “She knows how tender and loving he was with her.”

Marie, who starred in 50 films, and Cantat, the lead vocalist of Noir Desir, one of France’s top rock bands, who is seen by his fans as the French Jim Morrison, began a passionate affair in 2002 after leaving their respective spouses. It culminated in tragedy while Marie was shooting a film in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital.

Much of what happened in room 35 of the Domina Plaza luxury apartment block in the early hours of July 27 is not in doubt. Statements by Cantat, backed by numerous witnesses, show the couple returned after a night of heavy drinking. Cantat admitted he had been pestering Marie all day about an affectionate text message she had received from Samuel Benchetrit, her director husband.

According to Nadine, Cantat was insanely jealous of the friendships his girlfriend maintained with the three fathers of her children.

The couple were soon having a full-blown argument. Cantat claims she slapped him first and he retaliated by smacking her several times before pushing her. She fell.

Thinking she was drunk, Cantat says, he put her to bed and telephoned her brother Vincent, who was working on the film, to discuss the row. It was only after several hours that the actress was taken to hospital. She died in Paris five days later.

The post-mortem report appears damning for Cantat. It concludes that Marie suffered shattered bones in the nose, cerebral lesions similar to those found in shaken babies, haemorrhaging of the optic nerve and multiple facial traumas.

The defence is expected to draw attention to Marie’s turbulent past, including erratic and violent behaviour, drug-taking and excessive drinking.

According to a book by two French journalists, Stephane Bouchet and Frederic Vezard, the post-mortem examination revealed the presence of morphine and traces of several tranquillisers. The authorities claim other drugs were found at the scene of the crime.

Cantat’s house in southwest France recently burnt down in mysterious circumstances, and his family has received death threats. But the singer, who at one point was on suicide watch but now keeps fit by doing yoga in his cell, receives 30 letters a day from fans.

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