Europe 1 with AFP 4 p.m., January 9, 2023

The trial of six people, accused in particular of "acts of torture and barbarity" or of having refrained from intervening, opened on Monday at the Assizes of Douai.

The main defendants are tried for "acts of torture and barbarism".

The mother, who appears free, is suspected of having witnessed certain episodes of violence against her son. 

Two weeks of abuse on a two-year-old child, beaten almost to death: the trial of six people, accused in particular of "acts of torture and barbarism" or of having refrained from intervening, opened on Monday in Assizes of Douai.

The main defendant appeared hunched over in the box, in a tracksuit, his eyes swollen after being "lynched" in prison, according to his lawyer.

Separated from him by a policeman, his companion stares at the ground.

Both tried for "acts of torture and barbarism", with two other men (distant relatives), they told the hearing that they recognized the facts.

The mother, who appears free, is suspected of having witnessed certain episodes of violence against her son.

She is being prosecuted for "non-denunciation" of crime and ill-treatment, deprivation of care, but also for regular violence on her two children.

A last relative is judged for not having prevented the crimes.

Unleashing of violence

The little boy had been temporarily entrusted by his mother to this couple of friends on December 5, 2018, in Auberchicourt (North).

For two weeks he will suffer an outburst of violence, especially during alcoholic evenings.

Hospitalized on December 18, he was quickly placed in an artificial coma.

He has severe head trauma, numerous bruises and lesions, and fractures of the pelvis and tibia. 

The child, now seven years old, suffers "significant neurological and psychological sequelae", according to his lawyer, Me Alain Reisenthel.

"His vocabulary is reduced, he shows no emotion, does not feel pain" and finds himself "unable to raise awareness of his ordeal", he told AFP, convinced that a "permanent infirmity will persist".

The three men who appear are notably suspected of having used it "like a soccer ball", which they kicked at each other.

The little boy was reportedly tied up with tape, trampled on, pushed down the stairs and deprived of sleep.

The survey points to a "group effect" in this "escalation of violence", against a background of alcohol and social and emotional misery.

The six accused were then between the ages of 22 and 29.

The couple reported to social services

The main defendant admitted during the investigation his preponderant role, and less serious previous violence, evoking his excessive alcohol consumption.

According to him, the mother, overwhelmed, had entrusted her son to him to "calm him down".

He himself lived a "terrible" childhood, marked by intense violence inflicted by his father and multiple stepfathers, deprivation of love, and possibly sexual abuse, summarized the personality investigator.

"Unstable, immature, desiccated" emotionally, according to the professional, he has an IQ "at the limit of mild mental deficiency".

He was convicted in 2006 of sexually assaulting his sister.

To questions from the court, he often remained silent, prostrate, struggling to express himself or even to understand.

He and his partner are also on trial for regular violence against their daughters.

In the Lot, where they previously lived, they had been reported to social services, but their regular moves made it difficult to follow up.