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Manchester United legend Patrice Evra has been handed a suspended jail sentence after being found guilty of abandoning his family.
According to Le Parisien, Evra is alleged to have abandoned his family during a two-year period between 2021 and 2023.
Evra was handed the suspended prison sentence for failing to pay €969,000 (£813,640) in unpaid alimony after abandoning Sandra Evra and their two children.
The former France international’s 12-month punishment has been suspended for two years with provisional execution. He has also been ordered to pay his wife €4,000 for moral damages and a further €2,000 in legal costs.
Evra’s lawyers immediately appealed Tuesday’s verdict, which arrived after years of litigation.
The ex-United full-back and Sandra split in 2020, when divorce proceedings began but were never concluded.
Sandra’s lawyer – Nathalie Dubois – said about the matter, “I hope that thanks to this decision, Patrice Evra will finally understand that he is not above the law and that we cannot abandon our wife and children overnight.”
“Even more so when they met at the age of 15 and she followed him all over the world to support his football career.”
Meanwhile, Evra’s barrister – Jérôme Boursican – remarked, “Mr. Patrice Evra appealed, knowing that he provided his wife with an apartment, a house with a swimming pool in the south of France and that he lent her almost two million euros for her daily life.”
“A sum that she refuses to return, and this is the reason for this trial.”
The Evras wedded in 2007 but separated 13 years later after the five-time Premier League winner was pictured kissing Danish model Margaux Alexandra.
Evra and Alexandra are currently engaged and have two children – a young son, Lilas, and a daughter.
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