hit by her boyfriend, Amanda laments a conviction worthy of a “traffic violation”, because of a too recent relationship

When can we talk about domestic violence? Should the law be amended to extend this offense to all forms of couples and intimate relationships, even the most recent? This is the question posed by Amanda, this young woman beaten by her boyfriend, but for whom justice did not retain the aggravating circumstance of “violence on a partner”, on the grounds that she was in a relationship with her attacker. for a short time and that they did not live together.

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Amanda is 18 years old, in 2021, when she enters physiotherapy school in France, which offers him part of his training on a campus in Malta. From the start of the school year, there, in Malta, Amanda gets closer to one of her comrades. They have had an intimate relationship for about a month when one evening in December, she refuses to end the night at his place as he asks her to. In the street, angry, he pulls her hair, slaps her and punches her in the face. She keeps several hematomas, and even wounds that she shows. The doctors concluded that he was totally incapacitated for work (ITT) for two days.

The young woman files a complaint for “violence on a spouse or partner” with an ITT of less than eight days. Justice does not give any news for eight months until it receives by post a simple letter from the Toulon police court, where the young man in question is domiciled. The court informs Amanda that the case has been simplified due to the “low gravity of the facts“, the ITT having been less than eight days.

The court did not consider it necessary to hold a hearing. The aggravating circumstance of “violence on spouse or cohabitant” was not retained, because the connection between the two protagonists would not be sufficiently established and old. By this decision, the attacker no longer risks three years in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros and will simply have to pay a fine of 1,000 euros.

Several interpretations of the “couple”

The feeling of injustice is immense for Amanda: “When I received this letter, I was shocked, frustrated not to have had an audience. I really didn’t expect that, that he got away with it so easily, he wasn’t confronted with anyone. In my case, the one who hit me in a context obviously linked to our affair got off with a simple ticket as if he had just committed a trivial violation of the Highway Code.“

“For me, there is a discrepancy between the political and legal discourse that we hear everywhere to encourage victims to denounce their attacker and what is actually done.”

Ironically, a family court judge in Créteil in the jurisdiction where Amanda lives, on the other hand, granted her a protective order, prohibiting her attacker from entering into a relationship with her, from going to her home, and from carrying a weapon.

Amanda’s lawyer denounces a ludicrous situation. She will write to the Keeper of the Seals Eric Dupond-Moretti to let him know that some magistrates still refuse to consider certain violence as “violence on a spouse or cohabitant” if there is no marriage, PACS, or cohabitation in the strict sense of the Civil Code, that is to say with a “stable and continuous life together“While many sexual or emotional connections today exist without any of these elements.

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For Me Nejma Labidi, “in this type of case, your fate depends on the interpretation that the prosecutor who will handle your case will want to make. Many prosecutors consider the concept of cohabitation in a broad sense so that we arrive at a qualification of “violence on a spouse or cohabitant” even if there is no stabilized relationship, even if there is no common life.”

“It seems like common sense, but some prosecutors, as in the case of my client, will believe that there is insufficient evidence to establish the stability and longevity of the relationship and that without marriage, PACS or common address, we cannot talk about couples.”

Me Nejma Labidi

at franceinfo

“Today, we can be in an affair without living together”, adds Khadija Azougach, specialist in the treatment of domestic violence for the association Lawyers For Women. “There are many kinds of couples. And there is no reason to wait months or years to talk about an intimate relationship. Situations like the one experienced by this young woman must be an opportunity to reflect on our law, the opportunity to develop it so that our Penal Code is in line with the reality of 2023 “.