The mother of two children who were allegedly victims of violent acts in a daycare in Beauharnois gave a moving testimony to the program “Dossiers en cours”.
• Read also: Alleged violence in family daycare: young man charged with assault and threats against children
Her three- and two-year-old boys allegedly suffered violence from Hermel Girard, the son of the daycare owner.
He is accused of assault, threats and harassment.
The mother, whose identity cannot be revealed, indicates that her children had been attending this daycare for a year. They sometimes arrived with injuries, but the sitter responded to parents’ questions by mentioning falls or collisions.
One day, since the owner of the daycare had to be absent, it was her son who took care of the children. He then allegedly shouted and used physical violence towards the toddlers.
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A difficult recording to listen to
Then, one morning on her way to work, the mother of two boys received a call that changed everything. The police told her and her partner that major crimes investigators wanted to meet with them quickly and that they had recordings to play to them.
The couple therefore went to the police station.
“We didn’t really know what we were going to hear. We minimized it at the beginning. We didn’t think it was so serious and intense,” says the mother.
What the lady heard that day made her blood run cold.
“He was yelling at my baby. He was telling my two year old to shut up and stop talking. We hear when he is about to make a gesture towards my oldest child and my child says “Ouch!” Afterwards, he started crying a lot,” says the mother.
“I didn’t want to listen to it again […] It broke my mother’s heart, it broke a lot of things inside me,” she adds.
Feeling of guilt
Even if those around her try to reassure her, the mother cannot help but feel guilty for not having seen anything and for having allowed her children to undergo such treatment.
“I feel like I didn’t protect my children as I should as a mother. “It’s him who’s guilty, but it’s me who feels the guilt,” she says.
The latter expects this feeling to persist for a long time.
“I believe that until the end of the trial, I will never be able to remove the guilt that I have,” says the mother.
Traumatized children
The mother also emphasizes that she has noticed significant changes in her children’s behavior since these events.
“It’s very hard,” she proclaims.
The family receives a lot of help from the CLSC, but some wounds are difficult to erase.
“They don’t understand what’s happening, they don’t understand our emotions, they’re afraid of getting hit, they’re afraid of new people, they’re afraid of being teased,” says the mother.
His sons must relearn to trust strangers. In their new CPE, they are always on their guard.
“It certainly remains marked. These are people they trusted, these are people they loved,” says the mother.
As soon as they heard what was happening, parents pulled their children out of the daycare, which has now closed.
“I have a lot of resentment at the moment. I hope it will dissipate with time[…] My children are the most important thing I have in the world and I can’t believe she let her child hurt my children,” laments the mother.
To see the full interview, watch the video above.