Death of Mélinda: 25 years imprisonment for the stepfather, 18 years for the mother

The North Assize Court on Monday sentenced Mélinda's stepfather, scalded in 2016, to 25 years of criminal imprisonment for "acts of barbarism" and the mother to 18 years of imprisonment for having allowed the girl to suffer and die. 19 months, civil party lawyers said.

The man who hosted the couple at the time of the tragedy was sentenced to four years in prison for not having assisted the child, who died after an agony of more than 17 hours. 

Abused for months

Before the court withdrew, all three had asked "forgiveness" for their actions, the mother vowing to be "able to protect" her two other children.

At the end of a week of hearing "unbearable" for the civil parties, forced to "relive" the ordeal of the little girl and the mistreatment suffered for months, the Court considered that the "acts of torture and barbarism "attributed to the father-in-law were characterized, without however fully following the Advocate General, who had required 28 years.

Jason Odin, 25, is sentenced to 25 years of criminal imprisonment with 10 years of socio-judicial monitoring for having, on the evening of May 17, 2016 in Neuf-Mesnil, sprayed the girl with hot water, burning her seriously, before creaming her and putting her to bed in an attempt to cover up the abuse.

He is also found guilty of having abused her for months, inflicting beatings, bathing in ice water, hours "on the corner" or "in the rain", even pouring buckets of excrement on her head.

Mother Ana Maria Barbosa de Sousa, 35, is sentenced for not having prevented the crime of her companion, for having done nothing to rescue her child, and for having deprived her of care.

"Sordid behind closed doors"

For five days, magistrates, lawyers and experts tried to grasp the contours of a "sordid closed session" in which "everyone continued their life, indifferent to the suffering endured" by Mélinda, recalled Me Hugo Van Cauwenberge, lawyer of the father by Mélinda.

They detailed the stages of this fatal night: the comings and goings in the child's room, his "abominable pain", the couple's argument then their sexual relations.

Mélinda lived "in a slum", surrounded "by drugs, alcohol, and filth", let loose a witness in tears, the couple's doctor recounting the "thinness" of the child and his "loneliness".

"I am responsible", but "I never wanted his death!", Defended Jason Odin, denying the intentional nature of injuries such as mistreatment.

Motionless, shoulders drooping, he assured "love" Mélinda, the one who called him "papa".

The defense portrayed a "disoriented young man", with a low IQ, not really aware of his actions, the prosecution instead describing a "manipulator" experiencing his "omnipotence" on Melinda. 

A "powerless" system

The defendants "provide no answer" lamented the lawyers for the civil parties, Me Van Cauwenberge and Sophie Level.

"Is this mother capable of loving?" President Anne Cochaud-Doutreuwe asked on Wednesday.

"Like a child," replied the expert psychologist, judging Ana Maria Barbosa de Sousa "incapable of taking on a maternal role", focused on her stormy love relationships.

"In psychological distress" according to her lawyer, Me Jean-Raphaël Doyer, she had already lost her daughter Joulia, who died in 2013 when her godfather had let her down.

When Mélinda died, she was being prosecuted for mistreatment and her two other children were placed in care.

Social services "could have avoided that", judged Me Nathalie Bucquet and Jean-Philippe Broyart, lawyers for the associations Innocence in danger and Childhood and sharing.

Because "from the end of January" the children's judge, alerted by a letter from Mélinda's father, had seized the AGSS (Association for the management of social services) in Maubeuge, triggering a social investigation.

"What happened (until) the educator's first visit in April" then "between the completion on May 3 of her report - worrying - and its reception by the judge in mid-May?" these lawyers asked themselves, pointing to "too long processing times" and an impotent "system".

They now intend to initiate a liability action against these services.