in Metz, a police officer prosecuted for hitting his ex-wife and their two children acquitted by the Court of Appeal

The police officer, sentenced at first instance to 18 months in prison for domestic violence, was acquitted during his appeal trial on Thursday April 18. This former union representative in the East was on trial for having hit his ex-wife, their two children, and having subjected them to humiliation.

We must remember this 13-year-old boy miming his father pinning him against the wall on the barre, and recounting the cold showers when homework was poorly done. At the hearing, the 48-year-old police major, supported in the room by his friend, big boss of the Unsa-police union, only conceded a harsh education, a few spankings at most.

“It scandalizes me”

Nothing reprehensible according to the judges, who ruled on Thursday. They do not recognize psychological damage. While spanking has been banned since 2019, they talk about a “right of correction” parents on their children authorized by the texts. An incomprehensible decision for the children’s lawyer, Jérôme Tiberi: “We are coming to rehabilitate and exhume this right of correction for parents. If we had had a decision like that 70 years ago, it would not have surprised me. But in 2024, with all the developments on the prohibition of spanking and legislative developments at European level scandalize me all the more.”

The lawyer hopes that the public prosecutor’s office will appeal to the Court of Cassation. The judges also acquitted the police officer for the violence denounced by his ex-wife. In tears at the hearing, she also recounted facts of a sexual nature imposed by her husband and which are the subject of another investigation opened recently.