This Monday an extraordinary trial opened in Châteauroux. Nineteen people are on trial for having taken in, without approval, children from child welfare.
“Out of the norm”. This is the adjective most used to describe the trial of 18 people – the 19th defendant having died last April – tried since Monday, October 14 and for five days at the Châteauroux criminal court, in the Center-Val de Loire. They appear, among other things, for violence, hidden work in an organized gang, reception of minors without prior declaration, administration of harmful substances or use of forged documents, and risk up to ten years in prison.
For seven years, from 2010 to 2017, the Social Assistance for Children of the North entrusted dozens of children to the “Childhood and Well-Being” reception structure based in Indre, in return for compensation which would amount to at least 630,000 euros over the seven years – never declared to the tax authorities, underlines Radio France. A structure which nevertheless did not have the necessary approval.
Resident in Indre, Creuse and Haute-Vienne, the host families who were entrusted with the children did not have any approval either. Worse still, some had even already had their first approval withdrawn, according to the investigation unit of Radio France and Mediapart, after being convicted of… sexual assault on minors.
The hospitalization of one of the children at the origin of the case
In addition to the lack of approval, many children in care suffered violence even though they were placed by what is also still called the DDAS. From forced labor to abuse, including drug overdoses or humiliation, “these children have been violated, insulted, mistreated and silence is king”, lamented Monday at the opening of the trial one of the victims’ lawyers, Ms. Myriam Guedj-Benayoun.
At the microphone of BFMTVthe lawyer wonders: “How is it possible that we did not come to see where the children were housed?”, pointing out the fact that some were housed “in completely unsanitary caravans, without water, electricity or heating”.
At the origin of the case, Mathias’ hospitalization for a “bicycle accident”. He says today that it was more of a violent attack. While he says he was subjected to forced labor daily (shearing sheep, harvesting corn, harvesting…), he explains having been “pushed onto a metal pole” and having received “a dozen kicks in the head” subsequently, which caused him to be in a coma for six days.
ASE absent from the dock
It was by refusing to return to his executioner that he finally brought to light this network which would have potentially caused around sixty victims, as relayed by The New Republic. With Mathias, Angelina, Kamilia, Maeva and Damien. There are at least five victims who want to testify during this trial.
Today, the victims regret that no child welfare official is in the dock. “This is the first time that a trial directly points to the ASE,” said AFP, including Le Figaro echoes the president of the Innocence in Danger association. According to her, with this trial, “we have the opportunity to burst a gigantic abscess and offer a second chance to children who have experienced horror.” Because behind this affair, it is also the crisis which has been affecting child welfare for several years which has been brought to light. Due to a lack of resources, money, host families, educators, and faced with ever-increasing numbers of children to be placed, the ASE is struggling to keep up the helm.
“We would have liked Child Welfare, the DDAS as everyone calls it, to be there to express itself, but it is not there, just as it has not been there from the beginning” , deplores lawyer Me Myriam Guedj-Benayoun to AFP, who however concedes to Radio France: “The ASE is the public authorities. To point the finger at it in this trial is to take the risk of collapse the entire child protection system. I don’t know if our institutions are ready for that.”