Absent at the court in Lisieux (Calvados) this Thursday, October 10, 2024, an 81-year-old man was on trial for domestic violence against his disabled 78-year-old wife. The events which took place between October 1, 2019 and October 9, 2023 in Pennedepie (Calvados) were reported by the victim’s nurse and housekeeper.
“He admitted to being beaten and to having put a soiled diaper on his head”
They describe an alcoholic and violent man who suffered multiple beatings and humiliations. They evoke a particularly striking episode of which the vulnerable wife suffered because she suffered from Parkinson’s disease and cognitive decline: the day when the defendant put a dirty diaper on the head of his partner who was unable to defend herself. Heard, he explained: these are couple bickering. The diaper I threw at him. It was just for fun!
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Placed under guardianship since August 20, 2024, the victim refuses to go to a nursing home. Her lawyer explains her refusal to file a complaint by her great dependence on her husband. He admitted to being hit on the head and putting a soiled diaper on his head. The housekeeper was present. It made him laugh… This is violence, humiliation.
Violence that has lasted since 2019
She assures that if her client goes back on her statements it is because she only has her husband left and she still loves him. The octogenarian has a clean record. She needs him, he’s her companion,”
adds the prosecutor who relies on the testimonies of the nurse present since 2019 and the housekeeper since 2022, to retain the blows, the slaps and the particularly degrading gesture of the defendant. She also recalls that the gendarmes had to intervene several times for the drunken husband who had already hit his wife. The court found him guilty and sentenced him to four months in prison. He will have to pay €600 in moral damages and €800 in legal fees to his victim.
