On October 1, 2013, little Tahina, 4 months old, died during his nap. It was her second day of nursery. Almost ten years later, the former director of this municipal nursery in Hellemmes, a town attached to Lille (North), was finally indicted. Justice accuses him of a “breach of an obligation of prudence or security by not providing any surveillance organization for the dormitories”, underlines Me Laurence Bedossa, lawyer for the family of the young victim.
Tahina’s father has been asking for this indictment for several years. “I do not consider that she is responsible or guilty, he underlines to 20 minutes. But I believe that it must explain the serious dysfunctions mentioned by an expert report and by the police. I remain convinced that the death of my son is due to a problem of negligence in the organization of the crèche. »
On the belly for the nap
Since the opening of a judicial inquiry in June 2014, the case unfortunately reflects the slowness of justice. No less than seven investigating judges and multiple appeals followed one another. It was first necessary to wait until 2017 for a childcare assistant to be indicted for “manslaughter”.
The 25-year-old young woman, at the time of the events, had admitted having placed the infant on her stomach for a nap, in contradiction with established professional practices. The child, who had regurgitated during his sleep, had died of asphyxiation, partly suffocated by his vomit. For the investigating judge at the time, the case was closed and only the auxiliary had been sent back to the criminal court in 2018.
Additional inquiry requested
Considering the instruction incomplete, the public prosecutor then decided otherwise. An additional investigation had been requested, with a possible responsibility of the management of the crèche in the viewfinder. It was ultimately the investigative chamber in Douai, the institution that oversees the work of northern magistrates, which ordered the indictment of the former director.
“It’s long, very long,” laments the victim’s father. It is about the death of a baby and one had the impression that the legal world was not interested in this drama. Especially since the trauma remains very deep. “The cleaned body of our child was returned to us in the arms wanting us to sign a waiver for sudden infant death syndrome”, he still remembers.
The date of the trial at the Lille Criminal Court has not yet been set.