If the saying goes that youth happens, there are still limits. And these limits, the three teenagers who appear, this Thursday, before the juvenile court of Béthune, have largely crossed them. They are accused of having killed or mutilated around 30 animals belonging to an 88-year-old pensioner during several night expeditions in 2021.
Besides the owner of the animals, it is also the Stéphane Lamart association who will be on the bench of the civil parties to denounce a “cruel and unjust behavior towards his poor animals who lived their lives quietly”. Because of the cruelty, the defendants did not miss some with regard to the facts which are reproached to them. Not perseverance either. Between February 17 and 24, 2021, they went five times to the octogenarian’s private meadow located in the town of Leforesf, in Pas-de-Calais.
“His donkey found on its side, its mouth broken”
Each following morning, the retiree saw the extent of the massacre. Chickens, geese, rooster, kid and a pony with their throats slit. His goat, whose horns had been broken, was still alive despite a knife stuck in his mouth. “His donkey was found lying on its side with its mouth broken and its lead hanging from its legs,” explains the Stéphane Lamart association. In all, about thirty animals were victims of this methodical unleashing of violence.
The three accused, aged 16 today, live in Leforest, the same town as their victim. They will be tried for “serious abuse” and “acts of cruelty to animals” during a hearing behind closed doors.