Grégoire H., who had kidnapped his 8-year-old son this summer, causing a “kidnapping alert” to find Dewi, was sentenced Friday to six months suspended prison sentence and compulsory psychological care by the Saint-Brieuc criminal court. The defendant was tried for “the removal of a minor from the hands of those who exercise parental authority or to whom he has been entrusted”, an offense punishable by one year’s imprisonment, and not for “kidnapping”.
In the middle of the summer, the image of Dewi’s father had made the headlines of the media, which had extensively relayed the kidnapping alert as stipulated in the device, triggered for the 25th time since 2006 on this occasion. On July 31, Grégoire H., 39, domiciled in the metropolis of Rennes, a musician specializing in Breton music, kidnapped Dewi after a supervised visitation right at the house in the department of Lannion. He had spent the night in a forest with the boy and they were finally found in a field the next day.
“It was an act not thought out”
Friday at the hearing, Grégoire H., hair tied, white shirt and jacket, appearing free, appeared uncomfortable at the bar with a sanitary mask. “It was an act not thought out”, he said to the question of the premeditation of his gesture. “I understood a lot of things seeing the scale and the consequences of my act,” he admitted, recalling a complex affair with his son as he was widowed after Dewi’s mother committed suicide. “You cannot all your life justify yourself in relation to this difficult life,” said judge Stéphanie Guégan.
The prosecutor, Grégory Martin-dit-Neuville, acknowledged that this file was a “story of suffering” while the child is deaf, born in a car and belatedly declared to civil status. Although the father “knows he is wanted” because of the kidnapping alert, “he will stay one night outside and walk in the forest with his 8 year old son”, posing “a real danger”, pleaded. the prosecutor, requesting six months’ suspended imprisonment.
The defendant’s lawyer, Me Lionel Papion, praised a “balanced judgment” which took into account the “complexity” of the case. His client, “living in breach of certain standards” and who has “difficulties with the institutions” sees twice a month in video Dewi, who is placed with a family in a place that the father does not know.