Outreau case: opening of the trial of Franck Lavier, acquitted, for sexual assault on his daughter

Europe 1 with AFP 12:44 p.m., September 22, 2023

The trial of Franck Lavier, one of the acquitted of Outreau, opened Friday before the criminal court of Boulogne-sur-Mer (Pas-de-Calais) for sexual assaults, which he contests, on his eldest daughter, then minor, in 2015 and 2016. White shirt, gray jeans, thin glasses, Franck Lavier, 45, took place in the dock, in front of his daughter, 23, brunette with mid-length hair, dressed in a leather jacket. He faces up to seven years in prison. "My client is suffering. After seven years of waiting, today she would like to express herself and make meaningful remarks that honor her, "explained at the opening the lawyer of the young woman, now mother, Me Bachira Hamani Yekken.

She indicated that her client was not a civil party and requested a total closed session, which was rejected by the court. "It is important that the words of the one who had presented herself as the complainant and Franck Lavier can be heard publicly," pleaded the lawyer of the accused, Me Fabienne Roy-Nansion, opposed to this closed session. Franck Lavier was implicated by his daughter, then 16 years old, in 2016: she then reveals within her school to have been the victim of acts of a sexual nature on his part. The Public Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation and ordered the temporary placement of the girl. Franck Lavier is indicted and placed under judicial control.

The investigation led to his referral in November 2021 before the assizes of Pas-de-Calais, not for sexual assault, but for rape and sexual assault. The respondent appealed the indictment, as did his daughter, who sought correction of the facts.

"Mind-blowing delay"

The fact of "rape by ascendant" is finally requalified as "sexual assault by ascendant", leading to a trial before the criminal court. Franck Lavier, temporary, "has never recognized these facts," insisted to AFP his lawyer, Me Roy-Nansion, who intends to plead the release. Her daughter, "placed at 20 months" at the time of the Outreau affair, according to her "never managed to integrate into her family", which she found only at the age of six. According to the lawyer, the teenager intended with this complaint "to flee the family home".

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Seven years have passed between his report and the trial, "an incredible delay" for Me Isabelle Steyer, lawyer of the association La Voix de l'Enfant, who finally announced Friday not to be a civil party. Franck Lavier and the mother, Sandrine, also acquitted of Outreau, were already sentenced in 2012 to ten and eight months in prison for mistreatment of their eldest daughter and her little brother.

Traces of beatings

The couple had however been acquitted of the charge of corruption of minors by the court of Boulogne-sur-Mer. According to the prosecution, with findings from a forensic doctor, the two children were forced to kneel for hours on a broom. The fingertips of the girl, then 11 years old, bore traces of blows with box spring slats. During this investigation, a 2009 video, taken during a drunken party and featuring more or less naked adults simulating sexual acts in the presence of children, was seized from the Laviers' home. Other photos and videos of half a dozen similar parties between 2008 and 2009 were later discovered.

Franck Lavier was part with his companion of the accused of Outreau. He was sentenced in 2004 to six years in prison for the rape of his daughter-in-law by the Pas-de-Calais Assize Court, then acquitted the following year by the Paris Court of Appeal. He spent a total of 36 months in prison. The case of child rape in Outreau, which had led to long incarcerations for innocent people, ended in a judicial fiasco. After two trials in 2004 and 2005, thirteen of the seventeen accused were acquitted.