The Béziers criminal court (Hérault) sentenced an 80-year-old man, with a clean criminal record, to two years in prison and a definitive ban on carrying out any activity in contact with minors, for having committed sexual assault on his great-niece, between 2016, when she was only 11 years old, and 2020, reports the prosecution.
The victim reported the facts in September 2021, to the gendarmerie, after an appointment with her psychomotor therapist. She had indicated that when she went for the holidays to her great-uncle, in Valras-Plage, he had forced her to touch her. She had not, until then, informed her parents who maintained a relationship of trust with this man, continues the Béziers public prosecutor’s office.
He appealed his conviction
During his custody, the man denied the facts. He finally recognized them during his trial. “He said he did not understand his behavior and was ashamed of it, while mentioning the absence of an emotional life since his second divorce,” indicates the prosecution. The victim, present at the hearing, indicated her relief that her great-uncle had confessed.
The man was imprisoned. However, he will be retried by the Montpellier Court of Appeal because, on the same day of his conviction, he appealed the sentence pronounced by the court.