She hasn’t started to tell her story for a minute when the sobs startle her. Sandra’s blue eyes are narrowed, her mouth is frozen. Since the revelation of the facts of which the magician is accused, Sandra has remained stuck. On January 1, 2018, the one who was then a very close friend learned that Sébastien C. was in prison. Justice suspects him of multiple acts of rape and sexual assault on several little girls aged 3 to 15 years. “I was worried because he was no longer responding to my messages. It was not his style,” she recalls. His friend was then behind bars. Five years after his incarceration, he will be tried before the assize court for minors in Rennes. In total, justice identified 27 victims, both boys and girls.
A few weeks after this startling revelation, Sandra was summoned to the Rennes police station so that her children could be heard. Mother of two boys, she is far from imagining that they too were abused by the one who was her confidant. Dylan, his eldest, explains that he was the victim of touching when he was 10 years old. “We were in my room, he lent me his phone. It happened often. And then there, he started to caress me, to pass his hand under my clothes, to masturbate me. He was doing back-and-forth simulations,” says Dylan, now 20. The boy he was then dares not say anything, as if frozen, petrified. “I was very young, I didn’t understand what was going on. I didn’t know if it was right or wrong.”
The psychologist who intervened with the children evokes “a state of hypnotic dissociation” caused by the telephone and the influence of the accused on the children. Dylan’s little brother was abused by the same man. But it will have taken him additional years to reveal it. His attack will be examined later in the context of a criminal trial. The proof that the 27 victims who will testify before the assizes of Rennes are not the only ones.
The magic tricks made it fascinating
Each time, the “operating mode” was the same. Sébastien C. first became friends with the parents, going on vacation with them. Each time, he showered the children with gifts, spent time with them. The few magic tricks quickly made it popular, fascinating for young and old alike. “I never had an alert, never saw anything. The children demanded it, they adored it. Nothing foreshadowed such horror,” says Sandra. Since the revelations, the mother is devastated. Devastated by the trauma suffered by her children and by all the other victims.
“I feel so bad. I introduced him to lots of friends, I introduced him to my family, he came to birthday parties. There were children everywhere. I put so many children in danger. »
The investigation showed that none of the children around him had been abused a priori. “He moved so much in France and abroad that I’m afraid there are others,” concedes Sandra.
The mother is inconsolable, broken for life. In addition to assuming the violence suffered by her boys, she had to contact all her friends to explain the inexplicable. When she thinks about the trial, she is petrified. “I’m afraid to see him again, so much anger, hatred, sadness. When I think of all these children, it makes me sick. I feel guilty for not having seen anything. “During the fifteen days of the trial before the Assize Court, she will not be able to be present every day. The mother of the family is still waiting for answers. From the accused, of course, but also from the investigators and the justice system. She wants to understand how we could let a man already convicted of sexual assault on a 9-year-old child in 2011 practice with children. “I feel terribly guilty. But justice is the first responsible. »
How many victims for a poorly examined complaint?
In 2014, a complaint was filed by the mother of a 3.5-year-old girl who had been the victim of touching during a birthday party hosted by the magician. His complaint had never been investigated and the respondent had not even been questioned. It took almost four years for Sébastien C., feeling cornered, to report himself to the police. “During these four years, he wreaked havoc,” summarizes a lawyer. We can’t stop thinking about it. How many victims could have been spared if the investigation had been well conducted?
The trial, which will be held behind closed doors, opens this Friday before the assize court for minors in Rennes and will last fifteen days. A repeat offender, the accused faces a twenty-year prison sentence.