Four people were sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison on Friday in northern France for two weeks of torturing and nearly beating a two-year-old child to death and notably using it “like a football”.
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The mother, who is accused of failing to report the violence and treat her son immediately after his recovery, has been sentenced to four years in prison, a sentence that could be adjusted. She is deprived of parental care over her two sons.
The main defendant, believed to be the “leader” of the group and found guilty of “acts of torture and barbarism”, was sentenced to 20 years in prison by the North Assize Court.
This man, to whom the little boy had been entrusted by his mother in Auberchicourt, in the North department, had “challenged” the dynamics of “outrageous violence exercised free of charge” on him in December 2018 for 15 days had pointed out the Advocate General.
In particular, on alcoholic evenings in which the accused participated to varying degrees, the child was said to have been tied up with scotch tape, used “like a soccer ball”, stepped on, pushed down the stairs or deprived of sleep.
The man’s companion, who was also found guilty of torture, was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The couple will be completely relieved of parental authority over their five daughters.
As the verdict was announced, the woman collapsed in tears in the box.
Two other men, distant relatives, who participated in the torture were sentenced to 12 and 10 years in prison.
Emotionally “dried up” after a “terrible” childhood, the main aggressor has an IQ “bordering on mild mental weakness” according to the personality survey.
“The most important thing is to be able to tell the children that by the time the defendants get out of prison they will be well over the age of majority. They will be safe” and their parents “will never be able to make the slightest decision about them”, welcomed Me Alain Reisenthel, advocate for the various children affected through their ad hoc administrator, the LaSauveur du Nord association.
According to the lawyer, the seven-year-old tortured little boy suffered from considerable neurological and psychological damage. “It took him a year to learn what a smile was, two years to learn to walk again.”