“I didn’t have to experience that”: victims of the scandal of foster children in the North recount the violence and humiliation they suffered

To live again after experiencing the horror, in his words. Mathias was still a minor when, in 2017, he was placed in a foster family in Indre where he says he endured seven months of violence, until being hospitalized for a week in a coma. To the doctor who questioned him at the time, the child spoke about the violence that his foster father, presumed innocent, would subject him to. “From the first day I arrived, I experienced physical and moral violence, everything that is humiliation, he urinated on me. It’s just saying, I too have difficulty in realize”, he testifies in the 8 p.m. report on TF1 at the top of this article.

The facts reported are so serious that an investigation was launched, leading the authorities to discover other cases in other host families. “I wasn’t allowed to wear underwear, it was literally forbidden. He touched my chest and my penis to check that I didn’t have underwear on and the other girls did it too, in any case at least the one with whom I lived there”, tsays Angelina who, aged 12 at the time, lived with other children, in a caravan, without water, electricity or heating. “We had to dress as he wanted, short shorts, short skirts too,” she continues.

“They kept sending kids there.”

Seven years have passed, but the pain is still as strong for the young woman who says to herself “humiliated and soiled”. And to continue: “Because at my age, I didn’t have to experience that. And for nothing in the world I would have wanted to experience that and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.”

During their investigations, investigators discovered a well-functioning system. Between 2010 and 2017, Northern Child Welfare entrusted dozens of children to the Childhood and Well-Being association. However, the investigation will prove that it did not have the approvals to take care of them. The leader welcomed certain minors and entrusted others to members of his family or friends, again, without authorization. Some even had criminal records for sexual violence against minors. In total, in total illegality, these families will distribute 630,000 euros directly paid by the Nord department.

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How could such violence take place within child protection services? A child welfare worker, who was responsible for taking certain children to these families, agreed to testify anonymously on TF1. At the time, he shared his suspicions with his management, to no avail. “They continued to send kids there while we reported that there was in any case suspicion at the time. We said to ourselves, ‘but what have they done? made of our report?’ And our job is to protect the kids.” he says. According to our information, in total, around fifteen alerts reached management, without the placements stopping. The department did not wish to answer our questions, but at the time, to investigators, it admitted a lack of vigilance.

Since Monday, October 14, around twenty defendants have appeared before the Châteauroux criminal court as part of this extraordinary trial which will continue until October 18. Some defendants face up to ten years of imprisonment.