Horrible. Hungry for months, Amandine weighed only 28 kg and 1.55 m tall on the day of her death, August 6, 2020, at the age of 13. Tried for “acts of torture” from Monday, in Montpellier, his mother, 54 years old today, faces life imprisonment while her partner, 49 years old, risks 30 years of imprisonment for having “deprived of care or support” his daughter-in-law and did nothing to “save her from certain death”, according to the indictment order. They both appear detained.
“There is no doubt that Amandine endured destructive and paroxysmal violence, the sole purpose of which was to drag her into shameful and humiliating agony,” according to the investigating judge in charge of the case, in his report. investigation.
Confinement amplified violence
Sent back to the Hérault Assize Court, for “acts of torture or barbarism leading to death without intention of causing it” – in this case for having “starved” him in particular – between the start of the first confinement , on March 17, 2020, and the death of her daughter, on August 6 of the same year, the accused, 54 years old, faces life imprisonment.
The investigation revealed that Amandine had always been her mother's victim, who notably deprived her of food, inflicted endless “writing punishments” on her and locked her in a storage room, under the surveillance of cameras. .
According to the psychiatric expertise, the accused was able to “transpose his hatred” of Amandine’s father onto the body of his daughter. With confinement, the schoolgirl had stopped going to school and the violence and deprivation had increased, without safeguards or limits.
Several reports had been made
A former waitress, mother of eight children born from three unions, she must also answer for intentional violence against Amandine over the previous six years. “Violent, manipulative and a liar”, according to her ex-companions, accused of abuse by several of her other children, the fifty-year-old has always denied the facts, even describing herself as a “loving” mother in the face of a “thief” and “thieving” teenager. capricious.”
-Called to intervene on August 6, 2020 in the family home, in the village of Montblanc (Hérault), the Pézenas gendarmes were struck by her extreme thinness and by the traces of blows she had on her face. Heard the next day, her mother explained that Amandine suffered from eating disorders, which no one confirmed and the day before she only agreed to swallow a cube of sugar, a little compote and a high-protein drink, before to start vomiting and then stop breathing.
She “must have been the victim of serious neglect on the part of her family environment to reach such a level of weight loss,” noted the forensic doctor. According to a double autopsy report, his death was due to a “heart rhythm disorder” secondary to a state of extreme weight loss associated with septicemia and “a possible syndrome of inappropriate renutrition”.
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Amandine's father, her brother and her sister have filed civil suits, as have four associations, including “L'Enfant Bleu – Enfance Maltraitée”, which intends to “question the flaws in the child protection system”. In fact, several reports and three referrals to the children's judge had not resulted in any measure that could have put Amandine out of danger.
The verdict is expected on Friday.
