Tuesday, at the Béthune criminal court, in Pas-de-Calais, two years in prison with probation were required against two forty-year-olds from Noyelles-sous-Lens, tried for years of abuse on the eight most young children of a family of ten. The assistant prosecutor, Virginie Valton, asked the court to attach this sentence to an obligation of care, justification of a professional activity, and the prohibition, “immediately”, to come into contact with the victims.
“I will not dispute […] the right for these children to say that for them, it was the house of horror”, launched the magistrate, adding nevertheless that the parents were not “sadists”. “We are in between”, “in daily violence, trivialized”, she said.
“If you have children, you have to assume them”
“We felt overwhelmed, tired,” tried to explain the mother, Christine B., 40, emaciated face under her long blond hair, describing herself “physically and mentally exhausted”. “Above all, that our children know that we love them,” she said at the end of the hearing. “It was a nightmare, at times,” adds Marc R., her spouse, a 44-year-old car repairman, who can only “a little” read and write and struggles to explain himself.
The parents dispute the physical violence denounced. Small pats on the hands, spankings, “but blows, never”, assured the father. However, one of the elders, Bryan, described “a father who hits”, a violent and “submissive” mother, unhappy, living on family allowances. It was Bryan who called social services at the end of August 2022, triggering the seizure of the prosecution. “If you have children you have to assume them” otherwise “you don’t have them”, launched, head held high, his 14-year-old sister present at the hearing. She says she is happy to be placed, affirms that she no longer wants to see her parents again.
At the family home, the police had discovered two little girls aged two and four, tied to their high chairs using tight straps, in a deplorable state of hygiene. “When you get to tying up your kids, why not ask for help? asked the president.
When heard, the siblings will recount years of abuse. Some mention “slaps, punches”. Most report psychological violence, insults and serious negligence. Decayed teeth, pathologies or psychomotor delays badly taken care of: the children are “left to themselves”, sums up a lawyer for the civil parties.
Reports not followed up
The couple had been the subject of three reports since 2013. In 2016, heard by the police, the spouses had denied en bloc. The eldest had retracted and the case had been dismissed. In the spring of 2022, the parents met with social workers. But they tidied up their house before each visit, concealing their difficulties. “I was afraid that my children would be taken away from me. I was a child placed at the age of seven, I know what it is, ”explains the mother.
“How could the institutions have been so deaf, blind? “, pointed out Véronique Boulay, lawyer for the association l’Enfant Bleu. “We swung a family in the food”, regretted for his part the mother’s lawyer, Charlotte Feutrie. She asked for a “proportionate” sanction for “deficient parents, in difficulty, who have not learned to be parents”. The deliberation will be delivered on February 9.