“I saw the mass of blood and I couldn’t get it out of the toilet,” defends the mother, judged at the assizes

Wednesday, November 13 in the evening, the accused burst into tears behind the bar. “I am the only one responsiblesobs the 47-year-old Thouarsaise, who faces thirty years of criminal imprisonment for neglect of a minor followed by death. It was supposed to be a joy and it is a misfortune. »

“The grandfather seemed sadder than the mother”

The alleged facts date back to November 25, 2020: then eight months pregnant, she gave birth to her third child in her toilet, at her home in Argenton-l'Église, in Thouarsais. “The issue of this trial is not to say that you killed this child, recontextualized the president of the Assize Court, Anne Haye, but that you left him in this basin, without trying to help him”.

“I saw the placenta, the mass of red blood and I couldn’t get it out. I couldn't”replies the accused, her emaciated face bathed in tears. Enough to contrast with the detachment she has shown since the opening of the trial the day before. Referring to an unwanted pregnancy, the accused indicated in particular that she consumed thirty rolled cigarettes and ten to twelve twenty-five centiliter beers per day at the time of the events.

At the heart of the debates, his passivity was already evident on the night of the tragedy, as evidenced by a telephone conversation with the Deux-Sèvres emergency service (Sdis). Almost four years later, to the day, the recording was broadcast in the Niort judicial court. At the stroke of midnight thirty, the Thouarsaise exposes her ” issue “ to the firefighter at the other end of the phone, namely: “I just lost an 8 month old baby in the toilet. »

The voice is clear, calm, so much so that when transferring the call to the Samu, the firefighter informs his colleague: “I'm telling you about a lady who has just lost her baby at 8 months in the toilet, and who speaks to you as if she had just lost a ten euro note in the middle of the forest. »

On the stand, the person concerned explains that her water broke in her living room, after having dinner with the youngest of her two sons, who knew nothing of her pregnancy. “I wanted to go pee but unfortunately I couldn't come out because I gave birth in the toilet. » Carried out the next day, the autopsy revealed the presence of air in the infant's lungs, leading us to believe that he was viable before his death in the bowl, by submersion.

After about thirty minutes, shortly before midnight, the forty-year-old telephoned her father, a retired farmer who lives two kilometers from her home. It is he who will extract the baby from the toilet, around twenty minutes later. “I took the little one out with the placenta, and I put him in a basin, then I told my daughter to notify the firefighters”details the 68-year-old man, in court.

When they arrived at the scene, after 12:30 a.m., the emergency services found the father and daughter sitting in front of the television, beer in hand. On the kitchen table, where there are dozens of empty alcohol bottles, the baby waits in a blue basin, near a yellow plastic bag containing the placenta. In cardio-respiratory arrest, he will be declared dead during the night.

“She didn’t care”

In their testimonies, the four firefighters who intervened at the country house were less surprised “dirt” et “you brothel” who reign there than “the mother’s reaction”. “She really didn’t care”reports one, when another considers that “most shocking” in his opinion, “it’s because the grandfather looks sadder than the mother”. The medical file shows a “patient not moved by the situation”going up to « chantonner » when entering the ambulance which is to transport her to Saumur hospital.

“I was in shock, I realized three days later”she justifies. How to explain, the court rebounds, that the body of the baby, kept at the Poitiers legal medicine institute, was never claimed, until its burial by the town hall of its commune, in August 2024? Stupor, at the helm. “You teach me.” I didn't know. »