REPORTAGE
It was almost three years ago, on November 26, 2016. Little Tony succumbs to blows to the abdomen causing rupture of the spleen and pancreas. If justice will judge early in the next year the father-in-law of three-year-old boy for murder, another trial was held on Tuesday, that of a neighbor of the family.
Pursued for non-denunciation of ill-treatment
Jonathan, 34, has appeared at the bar of the Reims Criminal Court, very intimidated. Prosecuted for non-disclosure of ill-treatment inflicted on a vulnerable person, the 30-year-old appeared free at the hearing. Sometimes with tears in his eyes, he only pounded from the floor below, he heard the threats of the father-in-law and the crying of little Tony sometimes, but that he had never seen the acts. "It was inconceivable to imagine what could happen up there," he repeated several times.
Jonathan also recalled that he had tried on several occasions to warn his social lessor and the police. "But the police station was closed," he said, before saying that his wife, now deceased, had stuck a poster in the elevator, against domestic violence and abuse of children.
The prosecutor asks for an exemption from sentence
In his submissions, which reflect the complexity of the case, the prosecutor believes that Jonathan is guilty of this indifference, non-denunciation of ill-treatment. "But justice should not make him a scapegoat, or an example," he says. The defendant then listened, seated and fearful, the pleadings of the lawyers of the associations of protection of childhood. Most refuse to sue him. They fear that this trial will dissuade, in the future, well-intentioned witnesses from denouncing such acts. Only dissonant opinion, that of the association Innocence in danger . His lawyer said: "When I hear the defense speak of a counter productive trial, I tell myself that we are very far from ending this violence.