This Tuesday, December 17, the trial of the rugby player, author of a dangerous tackle which left Mathias Dantin, quadriplegic, opens in Tarbes (Hautes-Pyrénées). The facts date from December 2022, Mathias was 17 years old. Since then, his life and that of his family have been completely turned upside down.
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It’s been two years since Mathias Dantin await this trial. The perpetrator of the act which made him quadriplegic is appearing for violence resulting in permanent disability. For Mathias, there is no doubt about the intentional nature.
“As soon as it happened to me, I immediately understood that there was an intention to harm, testifies Mathias. Because I had already released the ball, my back was to the defense, so he came behind me. And once he took me from behind, he lifted me up at waist level, he carried me 3-4 meters. And then, that’s when he swung me forward and slammed into the ground. Which hit my head first and bent my neck.”
The player who committed this dangerous tackle in December 2022, during a match at Bagnères-de-Bigorre in the Hautes-Pyrénées, was not sanctioned. He has continued to play rugby. Since the tragedy, neither his club nor he have heard from Mathias. He told him not to expect anything more from them on the day of the trial.
“I am not looking for forgiveness or for him to beg me, far from it, but just for him to recognize his wrongs, Mathias explained. I’m really just waiting for recognition. Well, certainly financial, because we know that disability involves a lot of costs, a lot of daily costs. But beyond that, moral recognition and above all respect: telling us, there you go, the Dantin family suffered this attack and we recognize you as a victim.”
For his parents, Mathias suffered an attack and not an accident. “What I want is for this person to understand and realize the action he caused, asserts Jérôme Dantin with emotion. That’s it. Because everyone is incapable of slapping someone. It’s part of an assault. But making a person quadriplegic for life is something else.”
The tragedy turned the lives of the entire family upside down. For two years, his parents stopped working to devote themselves to the young man. “We didn’t hope for that for him, testifies his mother, also upset. We wanted him so badly to be happy, to be like everyone else. And there, I give 100% for him. Everything I do is for him, to make him as happy as possible, to try to improve his daily life.”
This Tuesday, the author of the tackle will appear alone before the Tarbes criminal court. Because neither the National School Sports Union nor national education were convened.
