Convicted of domestic violence
The kidnapping took place on Monday, around 1 p.m., in the parking lot of a supermarket in Fourmies, in the North. The two little boys were then with their mother. She was allegedly threatened by the suspect with a knife before he fled in a car with the children.
The mother then alerts the emergency services using a “serious danger” telephone, a protection device for people threatened by their former spouse which had been given to her a week earlier. The young woman was in fact a victim of domestic violence in the past, for which the accused, aged 38, has already been convicted, said this Tuesday the prosecutor of Avesnes-sur-Helpe, Laurent Dumaine, in a press release. The suspect, released from prison on January 14, was “convicted 14 times in the past, including three times for acts of violence,” explains the magistrate.
The 30-year-old must appear before the Avesnes-sur-Helpe criminal court on Friday. He faces up to 5 years in prison, indicates “La Voix du Nord”. An investigation was opened, in particular for “intentional violence with a weapon against an ex-spouse or partner in the presence of minors”.
On the run for eight hours
Despite several searches carried out in the vicinity of Valenciennes on Monday, the children and the father remained untraceable for a long time, the prosecutor said. This is why the prosecution decided to trigger the kidnapping alert system at 7:30 p.m. Shortly after, the father's vehicle was located in Beuvrages, 80 kilometers from Fourmies.
-“Warned by a member of his family and probably knowing he was wanted”, the man left a home where he had taken refuge with his children to flee. Spotted by the gendarmes, he abandoned his children, who were rescued by the police.
The father was finally arrested at 9:30 p.m. while he was trying to hide in a private person's garden.
Children returned to their mother
The children, examined by a forensic doctor, “presented no physical injury or trace of a blow and appeared in good health,” according to the public prosecutor.
