Victims, bruised by violence which “destroyed” them but relieved to have spoken to “rebuild themselves”, gave distressing testimonies Thursday before the Châteauroux court, which is examining a case of violence against young people placed in families without approval.
“It was hard, but it feels good. We have a weight lifted by talking, having faced them, it feels good,” said Angelina, 19, after an intense morning in court in emotions.
For her, as for all these other adolescents placed by the ASE of the North and already overwhelmed by three days of trial, where eighteen people appear until Friday, the passage to the bar represented a new ordeal.
Angelina recounted, for example, these repeated scenes where Bruno C., one of the main defendants, raped his own daughter, tied up, in a caravan devoid of amenities, where certain minors were forced to sleep.
“Unworthy accommodation”, for which he is being prosecuted, at the same time as violence and hidden work in an organized gang, alongside Julien M., with whom he co-founded the Enfance et Bien-Être structure, allowing them to recover the charge of dozens of minors for sums which would amount to at least 630,000 euros over seven years.
In tears, Angelina often struggled to testify, embraced by her three lawyers, managing to remember that she was “banned from wearing underwear at home” at the risk of being touched and being insulted in particular as “fat “.
Today, she says, the after-effects are numerous. Suffering from anorexia, she details “her lack of self-confidence” and describes a body “that she cannot stand”.
– “One after Châteauroux” –
“These memories are horrible and ruin my life,” added the young woman, “too weak” physically to keep a stable job.
On the stand, another, abused and now aged 23, “could write a book about her discomfort”.
“They destroyed me. I have a lot of trouble getting to sleep, I’m afraid of everyone,” she says in court, before one of her counsel finishes reading the story. of the young woman, too collapsed by pain to continue. “No one will be able to erase from my mind what I saw.”
Everyone tried to formalize a desire for “reconstruction”, despite sometimes having a shaky memory, like Damien, who became a father and a temporary worker in welding. He would like this trial, which he “was waiting for seven years”, to name as guilty those responsible for these “whippings” and drug overdoses “without a prescription”.
Matthias, 22, whose hospitalization in September 2017 for “a fall while cycling” led to the affair breaking up in 2017 after refusing to return to his alleged tormentor, retains immense “disgust”.
He spoke of his former “suicidal thoughts”, after being “violent and massacred”, and his difficulties in “trusting”.
Matthias found refuge in music, settled in the North with his partner in accommodation, and works in temporary work of his own free will “to escape the monotony”.
“We respond to imbeciles with silence,” he repeats.
“It is the duty of all of us not to turn a blind eye,” argued Me Jean Sannier, victims’ lawyer, asking the court to “do justice for their past and their future”.
Mr. Sannier considered that these adolescents needed “justice and care” from a society that had abandoned them.”
“There will be a before and an after Châteauroux, you will restore an image of humanity to these children,” said Me Myriam Guedj Benayoun, counsel for the civil parties.
According to her, these children have “entered into resilience”. We “gave them back their humanity, and we hope that they will have a good life, that they will rebuild themselves, finally”.
A motif of hope and resilience, this flower supposed to represent an anemone, symbol of their abandonment and form of response to violence, which they brandished in front of the courtroom.
“We are very united, I am very proud of us,” Angelina concluded earlier, her eyes still moist.
