“Devastated and angry families trying to understand. The Toulouse lawyer Pierre Debuisson defends, from his Paris office, 27 families – and 30 victims in all – contaminated by the bacterium Escherichia coli, possibly linked to the consumption of Buitoni frozen pizzas. He describes unbearable dramas. “A 12-year-old girl between life and death, children on dialysis, or suffering irreversible liver or lung damage. »
Some of these families, spread throughout the national territory, have filed a complaint for “unintentional injuries”, others are about to do so. But while the Paris prosecutor’s office, which has a “health center”, opened an investigation on March 22 and centralizes both complaints and investigations, Pierre Debuisson calls for the opening of a judicial investigation and the appointment of judges investigation in this case already suspected of having led to the death of two children. “It’s not normal that it’s not already the case,” he said. To be effective in this terrible case, justice must be swift. You have to go fast, very fast. We need searches, hearings, confrontations, expertise. »
Closure of the factory: “A minimum”
Families are “shocked” at the images circulating of the Caudry factory, in the North, pointed out, and whose former employees denounce the hygienic conditions. It was also closed on Wednesday by prefectural decree. “It was a minimum and it should have been done several days ago,” comments the lawyer.
Beyond understanding the process that may have led to the circulation of the bacteria, the priority of the families affected is also “to prevent such a tragedy from happening again”.