The smile that she manages to put on her face today is the result of an endless battle. When she was a child, Karine Jambu experienced the worst atrocities. Born to a mother who never loved her, this young Rennaise was pushed aside by her two parents, before they left her in the hands of one of their friends, already convicted of child crime. From 2002 to 2005, Roland Blaudy abused this 5-year-old girl with often unkempt hair and significant developmental delays linked to the abuse she suffered. Sexual assaults and repeated rapes under the noses of his parents in Chantepie, in exchange for a few bottles of alcohol or packets of cigarettes.
During all these years, Karine suffered horrors that will mark her for life, amid almost general indifference. The family doctor, who still practices, even defended the parents. Only one person tried to extricate her from the clutches of a repeat criminal and from a depraved home in which she should never have lived. From the moment of birth, his aunt Laurence Brunet-Jambu alerted the justice system, child welfare, the school, the doctors. For a long time, not a single magistrate would listen to her, some even having fun nicknamed her “the crazy one” or “the annoying one” as she harassed their services. Yet she was right. Always.
In front of the public who came for the preview of the TV film Reportswhich will be broadcast this Wednesday on France 2, it is a tall and solid young woman who stood. “I’m quite detached from all that. This is my story and it will always be there, in me. This is my life, it will never go away but the pain is no longer the same. I can’t forget, it will stay with me,” Karine Jambu explained to us just before the session.
“Otherwise it wouldn’t have been watchable.”
At the end of the broadcast of the film directed by Eric Métayer, she and her aunt were applauded for a long time, as at every screening. “It’s a little weird to see your life on screen,” explains Karine, her voice calm and calm. Only his hands move and intertwine when talking about his past. Always with modesty. “The film depicts reality well. Even if it was really light compared to what I experienced. It’s very light compared to all the suffering I experienced. » Eric Métayer, who had already directed Tickles in 2018, recognizes that Karine’s story actually had to be watered down. “Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been watchable,” assures the director of Reports.
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Inspired by the book of the same name released in 2019, the film retraces Laurence Brunet-Jambu’s long fight to regain custody of her niece and protect her from the horrors she suffered. “I was afraid that it wouldn’t fit my story, my life, because it’s fiction. But it’s very successful. It’s faithful, it’s done with a lot of modesty, without falling into voyeurism,” judges Laurence Brunet-Jambu. The Rennaise now sees her fight rewarded by this poignant film, which reveals the multiple faults attributable to the justice system and to the people supposed to protect her niece. “When we were applauded in Vierzon (during tomorrow’s Film Festival), I had the impression of finally becoming credible,” assures the aunt, not without emotion.
The attorney general’s apology at trial
Before this film project, she had already toppled mountains. First by obtaining custody of Karine. Then by dragging her rapist before a criminal court where he was sentenced to thirty years in prison. A hearing marked by public apologies from the attorney general, who considered that justice “had lacked foresight”. But it was only the beginning.
After the conviction of Roland Blaudy, Laurence Brunet-Jambu wanted to continue his legal fight. She condemned the French state for denial of justice, believing that the public authorities had failed in their protection of the child. Then for gross negligence, before a court of appeal. If I fought, it was so that Karine could stand up. I wanted the magistrates, the doctors and all the people who didn’t listen to me to be able to see it. Its reconstruction went through that,” says Laurence Brunet-Jambu.
It should be noted that, as soon as Karine was born, the midwives at the maternity ward alerted social services about her mother’s behavior. A woman who had been convicted a few years earlier for having killed her baby, the result of rape, with around a hundred stab wounds.
“You must never give up”
And if she wanted to hide her face for a long time, Karine, now 27 years old, decided to take responsibility and pose alongside the one who adopted her. “I often wanted to stop, to give up. But Laurence always wanted to continue. In my opinion. It is thanks to her and thanks to her family that I am here today. What I remember is that you must never give up,” says the young woman.
At the head of the Alexis Danan association, Laurence Brunet-Jambu has become one of the voices that counts in France on the issue of mistreatment. “When I held Karine in my arms when she was born, I knew straight away. But it took twenty-one years for his parents to be convicted (only for witness tampering). She suffered for twenty-one years. It’s not normal, it’s not fair. » A fierce activist, the Rennaise hopes that her fight will serve to protect other children. “Courage can sometimes fail us. To the victims, I want to say that we must fight, make ourselves heard to feel respected. »
The figures are frightening but “are not decreasing”
In France, 160,000 children are victims of sexual assault each year according to the report of the Independent Commission on Incest and Sexual Violence Against Children (Ciivise). It is estimated that a child dies every five days in their family environment as a result of this violence. According to this same report, the cost of sexual violence against minors is around 10 billion euros per year financed by the French state. “Nothing has changed, the fight remains the same because the numbers are not decreasing,” annoys Laurence Brunet-Jambu. Her immense fight for the one who was only a very little girl has the merit of opening the debate. A first step.
