She appeared in court accompanied by a small support committee. “I am here to free my son who has the right to his mother, so that we can return to our family life,” she explains. A 15-year-old teenager whose custody she had removed in July 2022 following a medical report. During a visit to the pediatric emergency room at Rennes South Hospital, doctors noted that the child had an abnormally low weight, weighing barely 27 kg, and presented a delay in intellectual development.
During the investigation, the authorities also discovered that the teenager had been hidden from the administration since his birth and had never been to school or vaccinated. So many elements likely to “compromise the health, safety and socialization” of the child which led to an indictment of the mother in May for “deprivation of care or food” and “evasion of her obligations legal. »
“My son has always eaten his fill,” she assures.
This 50-year-old woman was tried this Thursday afternoon before the Rennes criminal court. A hearing which took place behind closed doors at the request of the prosecution to “preserve the dignity and privacy of the minor”, to the great dismay of the accused’s lawyer. “It was six months ago that we had to protect this child, we now know all the elements of his privacy, his weight, his size and what he ate,” said Maître Emmanuel Ludot.
Before the hearing, the mother refuted the charges against her in front of the numerous media present. “My son always ate when he was hungry, I always took care of him,” she said, ensuring that her son was not malnourished or hidden: “He had a very good mass index. bodily. And we often went to the library, to the park, to the restaurant, to the museum. Like a classic family. » His lawyer also spoke briefly before the hearing, saying that in this case, the response should “not be criminal but educational and medical”. “Because we are not here in a case of mistreatment with emotional deficiencies, with a desire to hurt and cause harm,” he added.
After more than three hours of debate, the court sentenced the mother to a two-year suspended prison sentence. She was also deprived of parental authority. Contacted by 20 minutesher lawyer announces that she will appeal the decision.