The trial of a mother, accused of starving her 13-year-old daughter to death, opened Monday before a court in Montpellier, in the south of France.
On August 6, 2020, the day of her death from a cardiac arrest in the family home in Montblanc, near Béziers (south), Amandine weighed only 28 kg (around 62 pounds) for 1.55 m (around 5 feet) .
The consequences of extreme weight loss, associated with sepsis and a possible syndrome of inappropriate renutrition, according to forensic doctors. She had also lost several teeth and had her hair pulled out.
Sandrine Pissarra, 54, mother of eight children born from three unions, must answer for “acts of torture or barbarity leading to death without intention of causing it”. As well as intentional violence against Amandine over the previous six years. She faces life imprisonment.
Co-accused, his companion Jean-Michel Cros, 49, risks 30 years in prison for having “deprived his stepdaughter of care or food” and having done nothing to “save her from certain death”.
-Amandine was in fact from a very young age her mother’s whipping boy, who deprived her of food, inflicted endless “writing punishments” on her and locked her in a storage room, under the surveillance of cameras. According to the psychiatric expertise, Ms. Pissarra was able to “transpose her hatred” of Amandine’s father onto the body of her daughter.
The most serious events took place from March 2020 with the first confinement due to the COVID pandemic, when the teenager stopped going to school.
Four associations have formed civil parties, including “L’Enfant Bleu – Enfance Maltraitée” which intends to “question the flaws in the child protection system”. Several reports and three referrals to the children’s judge had not resulted in any measure that could have put Amandine out of danger.
The verdict from the Hérault Assize Court is expected on Friday at the latest.
