“I don’t blame them for talking. It had to stop.” A couple from Lorient appeared before the Lorient court on Monday, July 1, for repeated violence against their three children and the mother’s daughter from a previous relationship. She was the one who told the school about “punches and kicks” from her mother. The school for the youngest children also received testimony from one of the children complaining of back pain after his father’s punch. This is how the investigations began. The 32-year-old mother admitted to violence against her four children. Graded according to their age. “Little slaps and sometimes punches but only in the legs.” The father has more difficulty naming the violence. But his three children testify to the blows, the drinking, the insults towards their mother that he also forces them to say.
“This is no life for them”
During a hospital visit for a sinus fracture following a fall, doctors discovered that their 4-year-old daughter had delayed vaccinations, had irregular medical follow-ups, and was “a thin little girl, described as sad by the teachers,” according to the lawyer representing the children. The home was also described as unsanitary: damp, disorder, excrement in the kitchen, “because of the animals being locked up during police custody,” explained the mother. The father was described as particularly harsh with one of his sons, “whom he found effeminate, he wanted to toughen him up,” his partner said during her hearings. “This is not a life for them, I didn’t think I would be a father who hits his children,” the 31-year-old said as a form of redemption. The children’s accounts to social services and investigators are chilling. While they deny or minimize certain facts, the parents nevertheless seem to understand the impact of this violence on their children. “They take it badly but they accept it because I am their mother. They must have grown up with fear.” The eldest daughter now lives with her father and the three other children have been in care since 2023. “They are overwhelmed parents. They reacted inappropriately in relation to their adult status but the physical after-effects are relatively limited. They understood their mistake and want to make amends,” assures the parents’ lawyer. The father, a repeat offender, was sentenced to twelve months in prison, six of which are suspended for two years. The firm part will be served under an electronic tag. The mother received an eight-month suspended prison sentence. Both parents will have to complete a parental responsibility course.
