It was one of the biggest scandals of Emmanuel Macron’s presidency — and three years later it’s ending in a whimper. This Friday marked the conclusion of the trial of the president’s former personal bodyguard Alexandre Benalla, convicted (among other things) of donning police clothing to violently beat up peaceful protesters and bystanders at Paris’s 2018 May Day rallies.

In the ruling handed down on Friday afternoon, Benalla was sentenced to a three-year prison sentence — though he is not set to do actual jail time. Rather, one year is to be sat out at his mother’s home outside Paris and the other two on parole. Handed a €500 fine and banned from carrying or owning a firearm for ten years, Benalla also faces a five-year ban from public service, though the sentence remains subject to a possible appeal.

“I’m no angel,” the hulky thirty-year-old admitted at the bar in his final defense plea on October 1. “I don’t always do things according to the rules, as shown by where I am today.” This mea culpa was confirmed by public prosecutors as they made their sentencing arguments late in September — requesting a far lighter sentence than the one the Paris courts ultimately handed down on Friday. Benalla’s multiple offences include deliberate violence committed in a group, unauthorized execution of a public function, holding an unlicensed handgun, and possession and use of an unauthorized diplomatic passport.