Mother of alleged victim describes ‘bruises, injuries on body’ of child

One of the mothers who is the plaintiff in the trial of two former People&Baby employees gives evidence on franceinfo.

While two former employees of People&Baby are being tried on Monday September 23 from 2 p.m. at the Lille criminal court for “violence without incapacity on a minor under 15 by a person having authority over the victim”in this case on several children, one of the complaining mothers testifies on franceinfo. Coincidentally, this trial is taking place at the very moment when Victor Castanet’s investigative book is being published, The Ogres, which reveals the problematic practices of this group of private nurseries.

Along with seven other families, Zohra* will attend the trial of the former director and the former nurse of the People&Baby nursery in Villeneuve-d’Ascq, who are being tried for mistreatment of nine children over a period spanning 2019 to 2021. It was in 2021 that her twins were being looked after in this nursery and it all started when a new director had just arrived. Zohra and the other parents at the nursery noticed the turnover of childcare workers, those who remained were overwhelmed, the parents no longer had access to the nursery and, above all, her twins, who were almost two years old at the time, suddenly changed their behaviour.

At this time, Sofiane (not his real name), one of his sons, was no longer the same baby: “There is not a night that goes by without nightmares, without screams, without tears”remembers this mother. “These are major anxieties, he will regress in terms of language, he will lose sleep, and especially in the morning there are crises where he rolls on the floor to avoid going to daycare, whereas it has always gone very well.”. Zohra assures us, she does not do “no connection with the nursery”because “It’s too difficult psychologically to blame the structure in which you put your children every morning to go to work.”

Several months later, in May 2021, the parents, both doctors, noticed suspicious traces on Sofiane’s body. “One day, we notice bruises, scratches on our child’s body. At the base of the neck, on the shoulder, around the arm, on the chest too”The parents sent an email to the nursery management, but the response left them speechless. “She will answer me in a tone that I find frankly out of place. I then warn that I am obliged, following this response, to file a complaint.”

In the process, the Lille juvenile brigade was contacted, the investigation progressed and finally nine children from this nursery were considered victims of abuse. At the same time, in July 2022, a tragedy occurred in Lyon. In another People&Baby nursery, a childcare worker was suspected of having given Destop to a little girl who died. This was one tragedy too many, parents all over France decided to form a collective, “Protection Enfance Crèche”. Zohra was part of it and as such received “hundreds and hundreds of stories.”

From that moment on, Zohra and the other parents felt like they were facing a real system, designed to crush their credibility. The People&Baby group attacked all the parents who dared, like Zohra, to publicly question the company. “I have noticed that my story comes up very often and identically and in particular, I know two other families who have received defamation complaint procedures. These are what we call gag procedures, the aim is to intimidate people and it has worked”She analyses the situation as follows: “The families understood that it is not possible to go and denounce something so serious head on.” in isolation.

And what changes everything is the release of the book by journalist Victor Castanet. “What we understood is that if we want to be able to put the subject on the table – it’s a real societal problem – then we’re going to have to talk collectively. And so that’s what we did through all our testimonies in Victor Castanet’s book. It broke the code of silence,” this mother is pleased. She now calls on elected officials and the executive: “The political powers must listen to the words of the families: they embody, they are the personification of a major problem upstream which must be addressed.”

For its part, the new management of the People&Baby group does not wish to react to the holding of this trial in Lille, but wrote a long press release sent to franceinfo after the publication of the book. The Ogres. “We take these revelations extremely seriously and the practices described in the book deeply shock us.”it is written in this press release. “They are completely out of step with the values ​​we uphold today.” The company also claims to have “began a profound transformation” and indicates that “Independent audits will be set up to examine our practices in detail.” “There is a real urgency to take all necessary measures to restore confidence,” concludes this press release.

* The first name has been changed