Second day of the horror trial at the Hérault assizes: victimized by her mother and stepfather who starved and confined her, Amandine, a 13-year-old teenager, died of starvation at home, in 2020, near Béziers. This Tuesday morning, her mother, questioned again by the court, claimed that her daughter had deprived herself of food.
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Placed in pre-trial detention since 2021, Amandine’s mother continues to be heard on this second day of the trial, before the Hérault assizes.
In a calm and confident voice, this fifty-year-old affirms that she did not deprive Amandine of food. She describes her as a difficult child and says she does not understand how her daughter died.
According to this mother of eight children, from three different unions, this 13-year-old girl deprived herself of eating.
The judge then broadcasts the photos of Amandine’s body on the day of her death: “we see the child lying on the ground, covered in bruises, skin on bones”, says a journalist from France 3 Occitanie who attended the hearing.
Amandine only weighed 28 kg for 1.55 m. The mother lowers her head.
-“What did you do to him?” asks the judge. “Why did she have her hair pulled out?”
Silence in the dock. The questions remain unanswered.
Then called to the stand, Amandine’s half-sister, Cassandra, 28, describes her childhood as hell on earth. She also claims to have been locked in her room for several days, deprived of food.
The jurors will try throughout the week to understand the psychology of Amandine’s mother and the role played by the stepfather in this terrible drama.
The latter, in a relationship with the mother for four years, is being prosecuted for having turned a blind eye to what was happening in this home.
A seemingly ordinary family: he, aged 49, ran a technical inspection center, she was a nail technician. They had bought a house together in Hérault.
The mother faces life imprisonment. The father-in-law faces 30 years in prison. THE Verdict is expected this Friday, January 24.
