At the Grenoble court. (archives) – AFP
A sentence of six years of criminal imprisonment was pronounced Friday evening by the Assize Court of Isère against a mother suspected of being at the origin of the death in 2018 of her infant of a month. Also referred to the Isère court, the child’s father was acquitted. The public prosecutor had required fifteen years of criminal imprisonment against the two accused after having retained the “collective responsibility”, for lack of sufficient evidence to incriminate more one or the other, he argued.
“There is a confusion between the moral responsibility of the couple and the individual responsibility. My client agreed to bear the burden of the death of this child alone under conditions that are not true, ”pleaded the young woman’s defense before demanding her acquittal. The couple, two marginal 27 and 43 years in the chaotic course, appeared since Tuesday for “violence on a minor resulting in death without intention of giving it”. Known to justice, they had been indicted on September 19, 2018 for “murder” and “violence from the ascendant”.
Several versions of the circumstances of death
Residing in Moirans, near Grenoble, they had discovered their lifeless child in his bed on September 8 and notified the emergency services, who had tried in vain to resuscitate him. The autopsy of his body had revealed the presence of a double fracture to the skull and a cerebral hemorrhage which led to his death. Several other fractures in the process of union were also noted. Addicted to drug use, the baby’s parents were arrested on September 17 and taken into custody, where they denied having beaten the child.
The child’s mother had been remanded in custody and her father left free under judicial supervision. This week, at the bar, the young woman claimed to have brought down her son during an attack of spasms a week before his death. Questioned again Thursday, this time she indicated that the fall had taken place the day before the discovery of the body, in the afternoon. Suspected by his partner of having shaken the child, the father for his part refuted any form of violence and sided with the hypothesis of an accidental fall from his mother’s arms.
Civil party in this case, the association L’Enfant Bleu pointed to the “serious dysfunction of social services and health professionals”, recalling that a “bundle of clues” should “clearly have warned of the danger hanging over the ‘child’. In front of the court, a maternal and child protection nurse (PMI) in charge of his follow-up reaffirmed that she had not noticed anything worrying when she intervened at the home of the couple, the day before their death.