A complaint for “aggravated violence” was filed against three teenagers aged 12 to 13 who are believed to be the main instigators of Jean’s harassment.
A holiday turned into an ordeal. On Saturday 31 August, Cécile Lemaire, the mother of 11-year-old Jean, filed a complaint for “aggravated violence” after her child, who spent a few days at a holiday camp in Camaret-sur-Mer in Finistère, came back covered in bruises and bruises on his face, arms and legs.
The little boy from Oissy, in the Somme, who initially said he had fallen, ended up confessing to the abuse he suffered throughout his stay organized from August 23 to 29 by the Somme Sud-Ouest community of communes.
“Every morning, they woke me up by slapping me. They hit me with flip-flops, with their hands, with their shoes. At first, I thought it was a joke, but eventually, I understood that it wasn’t a joke. I talked about it, but they didn’t listen to me,” he told BFMTV.
To the facilitators, he points out in particular a small group of three adolescents aged 12 to 13.
“Well I don’t know”
For her part, Cécile Lemaire is furious and is demanding answers, particularly from the camp leaders who, according to Jean, did not listen to her when she raised the alarm.
“I went to see the presenter who was there, he answered me ‘well I don’t know’. You can’t turn a child blue from head to toe with the only answer ‘I don’t know’, it’s not possible”, she complained to BFMTV.
She also mentions abuse during bathing. “You have two minutes to wash yourself, we hit you no matter what, but if he goes over we hit him even harder,” she further describes.
Alongside her complaint, the mother wrote a text on social networks accompanied by images of her swollen son. “You entrust your child to people who are supposedly competent to look after him and you get him back in a pitiful state, a disgrace,” she said on Facebook.
And the abuse could have gone even further, she revealed on BFMTV. “They forced him to get on all fours and tried to pull down his pants,” she said.
“He managed to have enough reflexes to dodge them, he was able to tell the police ‘thank goodness I did boxing otherwise that day I would have been raped'”, she still laments.
And the mother added: “I don’t expect much from the complaint. I wanted to file a complaint against the organizers but the police told me that it was not possible. I expect sanctions against these organizers, a rigorous investigation.”
Back to school upset
For its part, the Somme Sud-Ouest community of communes says it has opened an internal investigation in order to better understand the facts reported.
“We are deeply shocked by this testimony and take this situation with the utmost seriousness. (…) We are currently asking families in our area whose children took part in the camp to gather their feelings about their stay,” a press release said.
As for Jean, he started sixth grade on Monday. On Tuesday, he will have to be away from the classroom for several hours in order to have his injuries assessed by a doctor.
On Monday, the government launched a new anti-harassment campaign to combat “an unsustainable scourge.”
