For the first time since the start of their deployment, the mailboxes of the association “Les Papillons” will lead to a trial next September: that of the incestuous grandfather whose granddaughter confided in him thanks to the device.
“If you can’t say it, write it”this is the association’s motto The Butterflies which fights against violence against children. Since its creation in 2018, it has deployed an unprecedented system by installing mailboxes for children in certain schools and after-school living spaces. Objective: to encourage those who are victims to speak out. This is what Lily, 10 years old in June 2022, did to denounce her incestuous grandfather. He will be tried next September before the criminal court of Ain.
The association The Butterflies specifies that it will systematically constitute itself as a civil party in each of the cases brought to light by the mailbox system. Franceinfo met Laurent Boyet, 52 years old, founder and president of the association The Butterflies.
franceinfo: How was the association Les Papillons born?
Laurent Boyet: I created the association because I myself was a victim of rape, by my brother, from the age of 6 to 9. It took me 30 years to find the courage, the strength, to speak out. When I was a victim of these acts, I couldn’t say it, even if I hoped for a helping hand. On the other hand, I managed to write it in a diary. I realized that the missing link in the whole chain of child victims’ speech liberation was the link of writing. I promised myself that today’s children would not go through the same deserts as I did. The goal for me was to find a system that was as close as possible to the children, where they are and that respects their time.
“I remembered that at their age, there were two places where I hoped for a helping hand without daring to ask for it: at my school and at my football club.”
Laurent Boyetto franceinfo
We receive several thousand testimonies per year, even though we only have 250 mailboxes in the whole of France. This shows the extent of the phenomenon of violence suffered by children. And this is what pushes us to continue to want to develop these mailboxes.
How does the device work?
We sign an agreement with the municipality so we train someone who is designated by the municipality to explain the system to children in the form of workshops during after-school time with a short video slideshow. We explain to the children what an offence is, what they can be victims of, how the mailbox that we have just installed in their school works and what it will be used for. It is the association that trains this resource person designated by the town hall, to explain the system, but also to detect signs of abuse and to collect the words. Because it is important to be able to give this person keys if ever a child were to tell them something.
Who collects these little notes and who reads them?
Following the agreement recorded with the municipalities, most of the time, it is municipal police officers or public road surveillance officers who, once the children have left, will collect the words. These words are scanned and sent via a secure email address to our mail analysis center at the headquarters, which is made up of psychologists employed by the association. It is these psychologists who analyze and process all the words that we receive every day in the mailboxes.
“50% of the testimonies correspond to school bullying, 23% to physical violence within the family and around 8% to situations of sexual violence within the family.”
Laurent Boyetto franceinfo
For the most serious facts, our psychologists either make a worrying report that they send to the cell for collecting worrying information in the department concerned, or when the danger is serious and immediate, they make a report to the public prosecutor of the department. For the less serious words, they make prescriptions that they send to the reference person who has been designated by the town hall: this is the case for facts of school bullying. Sometimes also, we go through the pHARe referent. In this way, we can highlight situations, but it is always ultimately the National Education that has the last word for the moment in matters of school bullying.
How is the case of young Lily the culmination of your plan?
This is an emblematic story of what justice can do when no adult comes to distort the child’s words. Lily handed in her note on Friday, it was in June 2022. It was sent to us the same day, during the lunch break. It was transformed into a report to the public prosecutor on Friday afternoon. And in the following days, her grandfather, the perpetrator, was arrested.
“It shows that when adults don’t come and distort what children say, things can happen very quickly.”
Laurent Boyetto franceinfo
This shows the effectiveness of our system. Because Lily perfectly understood the purpose of our box. She was hoping for a helping hand. Only her best friend knew. She had been going through this for years, her cousins too, but she didn’t know it. So she took on this role of heroine by speaking out, by writing to us, and that allowed this trial to take place at the end of September 2024. I am in contact with Lily’s family. A contact that was very quick, very immediate by Lily’s father who is also the son of the attacker. Lily was incredibly lucky that her family believed her right away. Her father, when he called me, told me how much without our Papillons boxes, he didn’t know how it would have ended, or when it would have ended. Since then, I have been accompanying them regularly, I waited for them to give me the date of the trial, I followed the developments, the referrals to the departmental assize court, etc. I am in regular contact with this family but perhaps there are other trials that have been induced by our Papillon boxes. It’s just that we, as we are only postmen, we are not necessarily put in the loop, we are not necessarily aware. So here we take advantage of it since we are aware, we will support this family until the end.
Is the system well received by the National Education system?
It was very difficult to be accepted by the National Education system and it still is. That’s why we sign agreements with the town halls and we install the system during the extracurricular time that belongs to the municipalities. Because we have a lot of difficulty getting accepted by the National Education system. There have been changes in the last few months, academic directors who are more attentive, who are more caring, but it’s still complicated. The National Education system has the impression that with our mailboxes, we are stigmatizing them because the first reason why children write to us is bullying. When that’s not our approach at all. We provide support to inform them of situations that they would not have experienced without the Papillons boxes. Cases as emblematic as Lily’s can only help us to make them understand that we are really there for the good of the children and to ensure that the aggressors stop hurting them.
If you are a child in danger, if you are a person who has witnessed or suspected sexual violence against a child or if you wish to seek advice, there is a national telephone helpline for children in danger: 119, open 24/7. The call is free and the number is not visible on telephone bills. It is also possible to send a written message to 119 via the form to be completed online or to get in touch via an online chat: allo119.gouv.fr. For deaf and hard of hearing people, a specific service is available on the website allo119.gouv.fr