the open letter from Lilou, who accuses her grandfather of rape and fights to be heard by the courts

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Three years ago, when she was 15, Lilou denounced her grandfather whom she accuses of rape, and today decides to testify “so that he does not do the same thing” to others. others. Supported by her parents, she fights to have her grandfather convicted.

While Ciivise, the independent commission on incest and sexual violence against minors, draws up Thursday September 21 the results of its two years of existence, with more than 27,000 testimonies received, franceinfo collected that of a young girl who accuses her grandfather of rape. But Since her complaint was filed three years ago, at the age of 15, she has felt that her accusations of incest were not taken seriously.

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The one Lilou accuses of rape,is his paternal grandfather, a business manager in the Besançon region. “It happened the summer when I was 12, when we went on vacation or to his home. He always did this hidden from my grandmother’s eyes,” says the young girl, now 18 years old. If she decides to speak, it’s “also so that he doesn’t do the same thing to my little sister and my cousin”, she explains to franceinfo.

After three years of proceedings, Lilou believes that justice did not listen to her. She decided to write an open letter to denounce her situation. A letter published today by Franceinfo.

Today, I am here, I am 18 years old and I have come to denounce the rapes that I suffered when I was 12 years old by my grandfather, an entrepreneur in the Besançon region. It’s been three years now since I broke my silence and filed a complaint. I spoke so that he wouldn’t do the same thing to my cousin and my little sister.

He bought my silence, taking me on helicopter rides, buying me lots of clothes and giving me fifty euros in cash every time we saw each other. He told me to keep quiet, and that if I told my mom, we wouldn’t be able to see each other anymore. At twelve years old, he made me drive his red Ferrari and his Mercedes, on both dual carriageways, at night. Once we even encountered the police, and it made him laugh, it was normal. There is no law that touches him or reaches him, he feels superior to all that. Does that give him the right to put me in danger, and even rape me?

Right after speaking to my parents, we had a meeting with my family members at the end of which he admitted that everything I had said was true. My whole family knows that he is a rapist, and now it’s up to the courts to say so. So I will fight, so that the whole truth is revealed.

I was interrogated four times, including two confrontations against my grandfather. When I arrived, I was told each time: “So now, Lilou, you are going to tell us everything that happened, speaking only of the facts, so we will listen to you.” And when the accused is asked what he has to say, he says that he has nothing to say, that it is false. Justice is satisfied with that.

During the first confrontation, there were six of us in an eight square meter room, I was sitting half in a cupboard. During my interrogation with the judge, which I had been waiting for two years, it was a person introducing himself as the magistrate’s intern who received me. At the end of her questions, this trainee magistrate asks me if I have anything to add, but also tells me that there is no more time and therefore that we must finish.

My four hearings are all identical down to the last detail, the courts say so. Telephone records confirm this. But what more do you need?

The justice system, the investigator, the judge tell me that they are there to listen to me, to hear me. But it’s wrong. No matter how much I repeat it, and repeat it, I cannot make myself heard, make myself understood.

The investigator told us from the start: “You shouldn’t tell anyone about it, we’re doing our investigation, leave it to us.” Well ! when I see the way the investigation has been conducted so far! All this must change, things must take a different turn and take the path of truth. If we can no longer even count on justice in this type of procedure, then where should we go?

I still ask myself a question. When will we be dealing with professionals? Mr. Minister of Justice, what must be done for these cases to be taken seriously?

The Besançon prosecutor suggests a dismissal of the case, well! I cry scandal, we are in a procedure which is botched. You can imagine what I feel.

I appeal to the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, you who, at the beginning of 2021, affirmed: “We are here, we listen to you, we believe you, and you will never, ever be alone again.” Well ! know that today I feel alone. They tell me I’m just a liar. My parents are behind me, supporting me, and the courts conclude that they are manipulating me.

In any case, Mr Emmanuel Macron, I think that in Besançon, they did not hear you.

Lilou

Heard in police custody, Lilou’s grandfather explains that his granddaughter was manipulated by her parents, to get money, against a backdrop of family conflict. A family conflict between Lilou’s grandfather and father which weakens Lilou’s accusations, according to the prosecution. For their part, the parents assure that there was no conflict, since they let Lilou go on vacation to her grandfather, and that the real conflict arose following Lilou’s revelations.

A dismissal required by the Besançon public prosecutor’s office

Placed under the status of assisted witness, theLilou’s grandfather is now waiting to know if the dismissal requested by the Besançon public prosecutor’s office will be followed by the investigating judge. A incomprehensible situation for Lilou’s lawyers, Didier Seban and Marine Allali. “Lilou comes to tell us extremely serious facts, there is a conflict in the family, and we cannot know the truth and we stop there. To stop and say ‘it’s word against word’, it’s “It’s too easy and it prevents investigators and magistrates from seeing their responsibility in these dismissals.”deplores Marine Allali. Before adding: “There are sufficient charges in this case to indict the accused, and by continuing the investigations, refer him to an assize court.”

Both believe that in this case, the investigation was botched from the start. Marine Allali emphasizes that a single investigator conducted all the hearings, that he only heard the grandfather in police custody once, apart from the confrontation with his granddaughter. She therefore requests, as part of her observations following the final indictment of dismissal, that the investigations resume with a new investigator.

“When our daughter told us, we immediately believed her and we will fight with her to the end.”

Last March, Lilou’s parents went to a public Ciivise meeting in Dijon. ” We went there to testify as parents of the victim. We were even surprised, because at the end, we were applauded and people came to see us saying ‘we wish we had parents who believed us and supported us!'” says Patricia, her mother. “When our daughter told us, we immediately believed her and we will fight with her until the end.”

For his part, Lilou’s grandfather’s new lawyer, Maître Frédéric Berna, says he “ scandalized by the fact that the press is exploited by the civil party”, who decided to break the silence. The judge who investigated the case has now left the jurisdiction of Besançon. A new investigating judge must therefore take up and re-read the file, before ruling following the final indictment of dismissal taken in July by the Besançon prosecutor.


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