The facts date back to 2018. But they were only mentioned by the victim in 2023 and judged in 2024, Thursday December 19, by the Pau judicial court. So in 2023, the young victim, little 8-year-old Maelys (born in March 2015), asks her grandparents how she should react if the man who sexually assaulted her for years – forced kisses and touching – was starting again. Shock among the child’s relatives who understand that she suffered attacks between 2018 and 2022. She was then between 3 and 7 years old.
“Kisses on the mouth”
At that time, his father regularly invited a neighbor to his home with whom he had become close and maintained good relations. The neighbor, in his fifties (59 years old today), lives marginalized and has almost no connection with his family, his ex-wife and his four-year-old son, an adult. He drinks. Very quickly, he becomes closer to this family and their young child, Maelys. He regularly carries her on his knees, gives her “kisses on the mouth” but also touches her: hands on her buttocks and on her chest, “although the latter is still quite underdeveloped at that age,” notes the president. Myriam Dasté.
In these childish words, Maelys also tells investigators that the man “made love” to her. “He straddled her,” explains the president. Still according to the child, he also asked to see her in the shower and took naked photos of her, which the defendant disputes and which the elements of the investigation could not confirm.
First conviction in 2003
These facts are reminiscent of the defendant’s background, since he had already received a conviction in 2003 for essentially identical facts. He was then sentenced to 15 months in prison with suspended probation for sexual assault on a minor. At the time, he defended himself by explaining that it was a “misinterpreted game”.
After this first conviction, the defendant said he promised himself not to approach families with children again, so as not to risk repeating the same things. “Yet that’s what happened there…” remarked the president. “Well… Yes…”, only replied the defendant who also denies the facts, affirming that it was “she who kissed me on the mouth and climbed on my legs” and justifying the complaint by resentment on the part of the mother who didn’t like him.
Present during the hearing, the latter was able to provide her recollection of the facts. “He bought Maelys with treats, candies and chocolates. Today, Maelys is traumatized, she is being followed by a psychologist. We catch her making “love” with the stuffed toy, giving kisses with the stuffed toy. » The prosecutor then said: “It is high time that justice reminded you that a child is sacred”.
The defendant was sentenced to one year in prison with suspended probation, ban on contact with the victim, obligation of care and ban on engaging in activity with minors for five years.
