Murder of a three-year-old child before the Côtes-d'Armor Assize Court: “The injuries are very numerous, would you like me to list them all? »

Dr Renaud Bouvet will repeat it three times during his hearing before the Côtes-d'Armor Assize 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). The head of the legal medicine and penitentiary medicine department at Rennes University Hospital 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 reasons accurate medical information and the possible chronology of his death.

“The lesions are very numerous, would you like me to list them all? », asks the doctor. The president agrees; the list of 67 injuries and bruises 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 internal trauma, including bleeding “at the peripheral level of the lung, inside the larynx and in the brain”.

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 death, a report had also been made by social assistance to the Department's Unit for Collecting Concerning Information (CRIP), following various alerts.

The work of doctors also revealed traces of strangulation, an act which could have played a role in the death. The forensic experts estimate that, given the seriousness of the injuries, Eythan could not have survived more than four hours after the violence he suffered. According to Dr Antoine Bigand, the shaking causing the death would have been “violent and probably repeated”. This afternoon, the court must 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.