It is a trial charged with emotion and anger which took place this Tuesday, December 7 before the judicial court of Orleans. Three former employees of the “Cocci’bulles” micro-crèche in Saint-Denis-en-Val, were judged for “violence against minors of 15 years, in the presence of other minors, by person in authority”. A fourth employee was prosecuted for not denouncing this violence. After the preliminary investigation carried out following the revelation of this violence by the management of the structure, it was established that the facts would have taken place between August 2020 and August 2021.
It is a difference between an employee and the two others, main defendants in this case, which resulted in the revelation of the facts. Denounced for having mistreated a little girl by taking her to a nap, she had, during her interview in front of the director of the establishment, revealed particularly serious and shocking practices in which her two colleagues were engaged. By providing in support of his statements, videos from a WhatsApp group created by these employees and nicknamed “the three funny ladies”.
A little girl who gave him the middle finger
Videos which, viewed during the court hearing, show a little girl, a baby, thrown in the air and caught at ground level … Children filmed on the potty … ‘we make a middle finger … Or even one of the educators who undress in front of them, then mimicking sexual gestures. In front of the investigators the two main defendants will admit locking the children in the dark, “not long, to calm them down” explains one of them. And use nicknames: “M le Maudit, the asshole, madame sadness”.
Facts which are qualified by the parquet floor of Orleans, of violence, on 15 identified children, in total. For the parents, who came to testify one after the other at the bar, it is indeed not a question of other things. In their words are found the same guilt of not having been able to detect signs of abuse., in their child, who nevertheless, for some in any case, had strange behaviors. Violent gestures, sexualized attitudes. “My daughter often said that the ladies at the nursery were mean, she threw her dolls in the air, she locked them in the toilet. I asked her forgiveness, when I found out” confides this mom.
They recognize “unforgivable” facts
Faced with the anger of the parents, who demand justice, the four young girls recognize and qualify “unforgivable” what happened. “I should never have done that, it was stupid” said one. “I didn’t mean harm to the children, I didn’t think it would have consequences, I thought the children wouldn’t understand” said the other. Both are very young, barely 22, and just graduated. “My early childhood CAP, I had it during the Covid, without ever going to class” says one of these former employees.
And this is also one of the elements that emerges from the audience: the impression that these four young girls were most often on their own in this establishment, the nurse-childcare worker worked a few hours a week and had to be shared between several structures. “The director and the manager we didn’t see them, sometimes they didn’t even say hello” the employees will say. It is undoubtedly what contributed to this climate of “fair” (it is the word used by a mother) which had ended up settling, the two employees allowing themselves more and more differences.
12 months suspended prison sentence required against the main defendants
But faced with parents whose emotion is palpable, the prosecutor begins, during the hearing, to recall that a trial is first and foremost a question of law. For him, violence against minors is constituted, since there has been “a positive gesture on the part of the authors, the consequence of which was a psychological shock on the victims”. And this violence was, according to him, intentional. “The only thing we can grant them is that they have not seen the consequences of their actions on the children” specifies the prosecutor.
He requires a 12-month suspended prison sentence against the two main defendants, and a definitive ban on working with minors. Against the 3rd, prosecuted for an act of violence, he requires a three-month suspended prison sentence and a five-year ban on practice. And four months suspended against the fourth, who has not denounced his colleagues.
Releases pleaded by lawyers
On the side of the employees’ lawyers, we regret that the complaints filed against the manager of the micro-crèche at the time of the revelation of the facts were dismissed. “It is the big absence of this trial” says one of them, demanding the release of his client, because the latter disputes any violence on the child that she is accused of having dragged by force to the dormitory. Another contests the very notion of violence, which according to him is not qualified in all the acts identified by the justice system. And also claims the release of his client.
The judgment has been reserved, the court will render it January 4, 2022.