the essential
Tuesday June 11, an Appamean man was sentenced by the Foix judicial court to 15 months in prison for having assaulted his partner, as well as his ten-year-old daughter.
With his face closed and his head bowed, Thomas*, an Appamean in his thirties, takes his place in the defendant’s box, in the courtroom of the Foix judicial court. He is on trial for having violated his partner and his daughter.
The facts take place in several stages. On June 5, Nicole* received several punches in the arms and thighs, following an altercation with her companion. Despite everything, she did not file a complaint the same day, even though it was not the first time that Thomas had been violent, under the effects of alcohol. But three days later, while the little family was coming back from Andorra, the Appamean attacked Nicole once again, while she was at the wheel of the car.
“I think I’m in trouble.”
He hits her, insults her, and even abuses the eldest of his children, ten years old, sitting in the back of the car. Still under the influence of alcohol, he admitted to the authorities having consumed 6 beers on the way there and 24 on the way back. It will be controlled at 1.36 mg/l of exhaled air. The two victims had traces of bruises on their arms and thighs. “I’m ashamed,” Thomas laments. “As soon as I drink, I no longer control myself. I think I have problems.”
Released from prison a month before the events, the Appamean is known to the courts for domestic violence and for possession and consumption of drugs. Faced with his responsibilities as a spouse and father, the defendant does not seek to exonerate himself. “I want to go back to prison, to get treatment,” proclaims the latter, his eyes full of tears.
“I’m going to slit your throat.”
“This is customary violence which only happens after a month of freedom,” argues the lawyer for the civil party. “This shows a crystallized situation of physical and verbal violence.” She points out that, certainly, this is the first time that the father has physically abused his daughter, but that she is also a daily victim of verbal abuse. “‘Shut up’, ‘shut up’ or even ‘I’m going to slit your throat’ were words uttered by the defendant towards his daughter”, demonstrates the lawyer. She asks for 1,000 euros in moral damages.
For his part, the deputy public prosecutor, Benoît de Saintignon, expresses “a feeling of failure, of a recurrence which occurs a month after the release, and which shows the extent of the addiction”. It requires twelve months to revoke the three-month suspended sentence but also a withdrawal of parental authority. A request contested by the defense. “He wants to redeem himself by returning to prison,” pleads Maître De Scorbiac, lawyer for the father of the family. The latter also evokes a complicated childhood, surrounded by a stepfather and a “not tender” mother.
A stay in the psychiatric hospital at age 10
“His childhood left him with identity problems, continues the lawyer. At ten years old, he found himself in a psychiatric hospital and today, we see what happens when we have not resolved these issues.” According to him, his client needs “a sentence that makes sense”, and especially not one that ends up taking away his parental authority. A wish reiterated by the defendant at the end of the plea, between two tears.
Taking into account all the elements, the Foix judicial court sentences Thomas to 15 months in prison to revoke the previous suspended sentence, the withdrawal of his parental authority, the ban on contacting the victims for one year and to pay 800 euros of moral damages.
