Signalements, on France 2, looks back on the ordeal of little Karine Jambu, mistreated by her parents and raped between the ages of 5 and 7 by one of their friends…
France 2 has scheduled a serious TV film for Wednesday, November 20, during a special evening dedicated to Children’s Rights Day. Reports immerses the viewer in the barely bearable yet true story of Karine Jambu, a little girl mistreated by her parents and repeatedly raped between the ages of 5 and 7, within the family home. Directed by Eric Métayer, who had already co-directed Ticklesthe story of Odette, raped at 8 years old by a friend of her parents, the program is delicately inspired by one of these ordeals experienced by too many children.
Before Reportsthe story of Karine, born in Rennes in 1997, had obviously been told in the press, at the time of a resounding trial. But above all it was told with courage by the person concerned herself and by her aunt, Laurence Jambu, who managed to rescue her from the clutches of her tormentors. The two wrote a book, entitled “Signalements” (Ring, 2019), like the TV movie that was inspired by it. It starts from the fight of Laurence, this ordinary woman propelled overnight into a waking nightmare.
“At night, he came to pick me up in my bed”
It is in fact this nursery school leader who will discover the horror that her niece suffered. In her book, she will describe her first suspicions towards Karine’s parents from her birth, the reports of mistreatment to social services which remained a dead letter, then the installation of this friend of the couple who will change everything in 2002. individual then leaves prison where he had served a sentence for sexual assault. “Regularly, he gives money to Karine’s mother or father so that they can go shopping, buy cigarettes. They leave the little one and ask her to keep quiet,” writes the France 3 website.
“At night, he would come and pick me up from my bed to take me to the dining room where he slept, on the sofa in the living room,” Karine wrote in the book. “My mother would sometimes come out of her room to go have a cigarette and she would see me naked next to him.” The little girl was then as much afraid of her attacker as of her own parents: “they hit me and insulted me, called me a liar,” she says.
Laurence Brunet-Jambu called a “liar” and a “witch”
Reports then tells how Laurence Brunet-Jambu will put all her energy into removing the teenager from the influence of her toxic parents and her rapist. 14 reports will be necessary, from Laurence, but also from the school, doctors, the neighborhood, before things move and the little one is taken from this home of horror. Karine was raped more than 300 times, while Child Welfare (ASE) was convinced that Laurence’s accusations were those of a “liar”. Faced with her insistence, she will even be called a “witch”. Two police investigations will also be dismissed.
In 2007, Karine was finally taken away from her biological parents. We will have to wait until 2018 for all light to be shed on the atrocity experienced by the child: her rapist will then be sentenced to 30 years of criminal imprisonment by the Ille-et-Vilaine Assize Court. Karine’s father will be sentenced to 3 years in prison (including 30 months suspended) and her mother to 2 years.
Today, Laurence Brunet-Jambu is president of the Alexis Danan Bretagne association, which attempts to collect and support the voices of children in court. She continues to denounce in the media the dysfunctions of the ASE, an institution created more than 60 years ago and which, according to her, is no longer adapted to today’s challenges.
For ReportsKarine and Laurence Brunet-Jambu were contacted by the production and were able to follow its preparations and its casting. Cécile Bois, known for her role as Candice Renoir for years, was chosen to play Laurence Jambu, Odile Vuillemin to play Véronique, the child’s mother, Bruno Solo an ASE executive as cold as he is confident. Karine is played by Flavie Dachy (between 9 and 13 years old) and Victoria Eber (teenager then adult).