This Friday at the end of the morning, during a press conference, the public prosecutor of Reims, François Schneider, delivered a certain number of elements relating to the kidnapping, sequestration and violence suffered by a teenager from 16 years old. The police were called around 6 p.m. to the Red Cross neighborhood this Sunday: a young man was discovered, wandering on the public highway, with a swollen face and clearly disoriented. He was taken to hospital and could not be heard from until the next day.
He then explained to investigators that he had just ended, without difficulty, the relationship he had with a young girl from his high school. On Sunday, he received a message from a friend asking him to come meet him near his building. When he arrived there, he was greeted by four men who got out of a Renault Clio while the driver remained on board. “He was forcefully taken into the vehicle, identifying the most violent man as his ex-girlfriend’s brother. He was beaten so hard that he lost consciousness. relates the prosecutor. The young man woke up at the foot of a Red Cross building, then lost consciousness again after receiving further blows, before finding himself in an apartment with several people. As he continued to be hit by two of the young woman’s brothers, he saw her in the corridor, in tears and with a shaved head. She herself says she didn’t see him. He also identified her mother, who did not intervene.
The older brother then threatened him and then stabbed him in the face with a knife. “The victim then hears them say that they are going to take him to the cellar. He faints again and finds himself, without knowing how, in the street. » The medical examiner set the teenager’s total incapacity at eight days; he suffered in particular from a broken nose, a cut to the face which may have been made with a knife, not to mention the psychological impact.
The main defendant was sentenced in 2023 for aggravated violence, and was on an electronic bracelet at the time of the events
During their investigations, judicial police investigators discovered that the young girl’s parents had informed her high school that she would be absent for three weeks due to vacation in Chad, the family’s country of origin. However, she presented herself on the night of May 7 to 8 at the Antony police station, explaining that she had been abused by her brothers and her mother, and confined in the family apartment.
“She says that her older brother discovered photos and videos in her phone confirming her relationship with the young man, which provoked her fury and that of her mother. The latter proved to be the most virulent, spitting on her and insulting her, while threatening her, according to her, with a knife to her throat. She tried to throw herself out of the window, but was narrowly caught by her brother who beat her. She then says she was locked in her locked room, with her mother ordering her to take off her wig even though it was stuck on, then cutting off all of her braids with scissors. Her mother also threatened to send her back to Chad, which is why the young girl decided to escape on the night of May 6 to 7, taking advantage of the opening of the lock on the bedroom door and the fact that the whole family was asleep. She took a bus and went to a friend’s house in Antony. Given the violence of the protagonists as described by the two victims, it was decided to carry out arrests that same afternoon. » Especially since the main suspect, aged 19, was sentenced in 2023 for aggravated violence, and was on an electronic bracelet at the time of the events.
The mother and big brother recognizing the facts at a minimum
“After asserting his right to silence, he admitted the facts to the strict minimum. He said he hit his sister, then through an acquaintance, went to meet the second victim whom he allegedly convinced to follow him by car to his house to confront him with his sister. The young girl refused, and according to her, he would have let her go again. He still says he did not witness any violence that day, denying the kidnapping, but confirming that his mother was indeed present. The latter, after having denied everything, admitted to having hit her daughter after discovering this relationship, but denied having bitten him or having spit on him, even less having threatened him with a knife, she had however witnessed the violence of the great brother on his younger sister. Furthermore, she admitted to having cut her daughter’s braids with scissors. reports the prosecutor.
The two accused will be referred during the day with a view to opening a judicial investigation, the magistrate requesting their indictment concerning the acts committed against the young man, for kidnapping and sequestration without voluntary release, criminal acts punishable by twenty years of imprisonment, violence aggravated by three circumstances (premeditation, with a weapon and in a meeting), and failure to denounce a crime or misdemeanor for the mother. Concerning the acts committed against the young girl and concerning the older brother, the mother and other people who remain to be identified, the indictment concerns kidnapping and sequestration without voluntary release and aggravated violence.
