Saint Pierre. The man was tried Thursday by the Saint-Pierre court for incestuous sexual assault. His 11-year-old niece accuses him of touching. He was finally acquitted.
Justice did not believe the child. On Thursday, before the Saint-Pierre court, Marcel*, in his fifties, had to answer for the incestuous sexual assault he was accused of. The victim? His 11-year-old niece, absent from the hearing and represented by her parents and their two lawyers.
The facts date back to last March. Adrianna, 11 years old, spends two weeks with her grandmother for the holidays. A parenthesis in a disrupted family daily life. His parents separated a little over a year ago. Her father lives in mainland France with one of his brothers, while she and the other children live with their mother in Reunion. A decision taken, according to parental statements, by siblings. Since then, Adrianna has had particularly restless sleep and has had more nightmares.
One night, Adrianna’s grandmother sent her to her uncle’s house with her four cousins to spend the night. The next day, the girl said she was touched on the genitals by her uncle while she was sleeping with her cousins in the living room. The child described having hands placed on her lower abdomen and lower back, as well as on her private parts. “Up and down and right to left, for 10 to 15 minutes under his pajama shorts, with two fingers”read the presiding judge. A precise description that the victim repeated several times to the numerous psychologists, judges and close relatives.
A conspiracy
On the stand, Marcel denies it outright. He only admits to having placed his hands on the child’s back and stomach to put her upright, while she was sleeping on top of her cousins. Marcel unfortunately does not have a past that is favorable to him. Significant alcohol problems and a separation from his partner, due to lack of sufficient sexual relations, are recalled by the court. “You were in high demand, several times a day. You didn’t let her rest,” specifies the president.
The accused, calm, however, denies having touched his niece. “I was almost a father figure to her because she missed her father. She made a transference, he submits to the court. In addition, the little girl knew from her mother that she had also suffered incest from our father. It was very troubling.” For him, his sister and Adrianna’s mother would not have forgiven him for not having taken a stand against their father. He therefore calls it a conspiracy, just like during the separation with his ex-wife, also a friend of his sister, who had sought to take away custody of his children.
A liar ?
“I believe my daughter, she is not a liar”, Adrianna’s dad, who came specially from France, argues at the bar. Marcel does not accuse her of being one either, but simply of “transforming realities”. The prosecutor also believes the child. “Her version has never changed from a hiatus. It is precise and it is always the same thing she tells everyone”he said before announcing requisitions that he described as “severe”. He asks for 36 months in prison, 24 of which are suspended for three years, as well as psychological treatment, against alcoholism, an obligation to work, a ban on contact with Adrianna and her parents, a ban on working with minors. for 10 years, 140 hours of community service and registration in the automated judicial file for perpetrators of sexual or violent offenses (FIJAIS). The court, after deliberating, finally acquitted Marcel. However, he receives a completely different punishment: that of seeing his family torn apart around the words of a niece he appreciated so much and incest, which is definitely part of their history.
Léa Delaplace
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