She is the collateral victim of an awkward encounter. Inès (all first names have been changed) is a 4-year-old child living in Ille-et-Vilaine. For several months, she has found herself in the middle of an open conflict between her father and mother, now separated but not yet divorced. Left in the care of her mother for a long time, notably during her father’s pre-trial detention, the little girl has just been entrusted to child welfare. His mother, aged 43 and mother of six other children, strongly contests this decision and has decided to speak out to 20 minutes to plead his case. A thorny issue that the Rennes justice system has the difficult task of untangling.
“My daughter was taken from me. I have nothing left to lose,” Agathe (not her real name) immediately sums up. This woman’s words are sincere, her tone is serious. For years, she has denounced the threats to which she has been subjected. His testimony is damning but clashes with the reality of the facts. All the complaints she was able to file against her ex-husband were dismissed with the same reason: insufficiently serious offense. Since meeting on the Internet and marrying Sélim (not her real name) in Tunisia in 2017, this mother has seen her union deteriorate. “I was easy prey, weakened by a first divorce. Not even a month after our return to France, he started to raise his hands on me,” assures the Breton.
“It’s going in all directions”
Agathe has filed numerous complaints for domestic violence, habitual violence, destruction of property or damage. Facts formally contested by her husband’s lawyer. “There are multiple complaints for everything. Degradations, violence, rapes. It’s going in all directions. My client disputes all charges. And so far, justice has always ruled in his favor,” defends Me Sabrina Baudet.
Sélim’s lawyer says the truth. According to the Rennes public prosecutor’s office, all the complaints filed by Agathe were dismissed, like around 80% of complaints of the same type in France. Only one remains pending and concerns acts of “spouse rape” and “habitual violence”. Acts for which Sélim spent eighteen months in pre-trial detention, before being released in 2020. “On March 1, 2024, the prosecution, at the end of a final indictment of nearly 40 pages, requested a dismissal of the case. follow, the charges appearing insufficient for referral to the trial court. The decision now rests with the investigating magistrate,” specifies public prosecutor Philippe Astruc. The magistrate knows the case well. Its jurisdiction also granted the mother a serious danger phone and a protection order.
The father’s lawyer denounces “relentlessness”
The acts of rape that she says she suffered are not the only ones to be denounced by Agathe. According to the mother who has since filed a complaint, Sélim allegedly raped her daughter during a publicized interview in October 2022. The only one to which she had agreed to introduce her daughter. “It’s simply impossible,” assures the father’s lawyer, who denounces “relentlessness”. “All my client wants is to be able to see his daughter and for her to be well. »
Fearing that her child would be a victim of violence, her mother refused to introduce Inès to her father. According to Me Baudet, the courts have called Agathe to order several times but the mother does not want to hear about it. According to her and at her request, several specialists who observed Inès detected worrying behavior. A medical examination carried out a month after the publicized interview raised the possibility that the 4-year-old child was no longer a virgin. But the observation could not be confirmed, as the child could not tolerate anyone approaching “the genito-anal sphere”, according to the terms of the file. A symptom, according to his mother, of sexual assault. The problem is that the child was never interviewed.
“I live in real hell”
The complaint of incestuous sexual assault on a minor by ascendant was “dismissed on May 16, 2023 on the grounds of an insufficiently characterized offense,” specifies the prosecution. Agathe hoped that the atrocious words she thought she heard on the recording of the connected watch worn by her daughter during the famous interview would provide proof. This poor quality recording, which 20 minutes was able to listen, however provides no proof of the facts denounced. So we are left with one word against another word. In their conclusions, Agathe’s lawyers nevertheless recall the two reports of “minors in danger” established by a clinical psychologist who is a member of the victimology unit. A second psychologist joined the second report, which was added to “worrying information” transmitted by Inès’ school principal.
Since that day in May, the child had been kept at the mother’s home. Followed by doctors, Inès seemed to cope well with the situation, surrounded by her mother and her half-brothers and sisters. But during yet another consultation, a doctor from the Redon hospital center transmitted “worrying information” referring to “difficulties observed in the family”, according to the prosecution. She was therefore taken from her mother and taken into the care of child welfare “for the sole purpose of protecting her”, it is specified.
+ information on child protection
Agathe, overwhelmed by this decision, experiences the separation she suffered very badly and appealed. “I am going through real hell,” summarizes the mother, distraught. It is now up to a judge to decide whether or not to maintain the child’s placement. And it is up to another judge to decide on the legal action to be taken in the case.
In France, around 340,000 young people live “under protection”. Half of them are placed in homes or foster families. A system often described as in great difficulty and which is seriously lacking in resources.