Dr Renaud Bouvet will repeat it three times at the helm of the Côtes-d’Armor criminal court: “Only 1% of 3-year-old children weigh less than 11 kg”. 11 kg for 95 cm, this was nevertheless the weight of young Eythan, 3 years old, at the time of his death, on Sunday July 10, 2022, in Guingamp (22). Head of the legal and penitentiary medicine department at Rennes University Hospital, Dr Bouvet carried out the autopsy of the child and his conclusions should, this Tuesday, November 12, 2024, enlighten the Côtes-d’Armor Assize Court on the exact medical reasons and possible timeline of his death.
“The lesions are very numerous, would you like me to list them all? », asks the doctor. The president nods and the list of 67 traumas begins. Head, neck, arch, eyebrow, nose, cheekbone, ear, shoulder, hip, back, forearm, hand, shin, ankle: no location of the child’s body does not appear to have been spared the violence. Dr. Antoine Bigand, a forensic pathologist, reports all the internal lesions noted, including bleeding “at the peripheral level of the lung, the larynx and the brain”, as well as a detachment of the retina.
Traces de strangulation
It is the second day of the trial which began on Friday November 8, 2024 and the court must shed light on the responsibilities of the mother of the victim, prosecuted for deprivation of care and failure to assist a person in danger, and of her step- father, Gaël Scoubart, accused of the murder of Eythan. According to Dr. Bouvet, the child died from head trauma caused by a violent shaking. A month before the tragedy, a report had been made by social assistance to the Department’s Unit for Collecting Concerning Information (CRIP), following various alerts.
A violent and probably repeated shaking
Doctors also noted traces of strangulation, a trauma “which could have contributed to the death”. The two forensic experts estimate that, given the severity of his injuries, Eythan could not have survived more than four hours after the fatal blows he suffered. “He had exceptionally more lesions than the abused children I examine,” notes Dr. Bouvet. According to Dr Antoine Bigand, the shaking that caused his death was “violent and probably repeated”. When he was found by emergency services at 5:30 p.m., Eythan had in fact already been dead for around 12 hours.
The court must now hear the two accused on their version of the facts. That of Gaël Scoubart, according to which he did nothing other than “push the child on his bed”, the day before his death, already clashes with the medico-legal conclusions.
Belgium
